The Cousins interview was the most compelling, refreshing and honest interview I’ve seen in a long, long time. Quite simply, it was gripping television.
If you didn’t catch any of Ben Cousins on Tuesday night I highly recommend you quickly get a copy of the Fox Sports program ‘On the Couch’.
Finally Cousins didn’t appear smug or contemptuous but rather sincere and genuine.
He clearly had been waiting until he was ready to confront the many skeletons, issues and questions relating to his shady and controversial past before he was willing to open himself up in such a candid and frank discussion.
The football world had desperately wanted answers but the problem has been Cousins was simply not ready to provide them.
Now it appears he is, and you have to wonder if his chequered history has the potential to become an inspiration to others?
Can football’s biggest villain now actually become a future role model?
Does society fully understand the complexities of drug addiction?
Cousins believes we are still naïve on the subject within the community, but even more clueless are the sports journalists that have been following his roller coast time in the game. Regardless though he’s not bitter, just ready to help us appreciate how serious addiction is.
The 32 year old wants to leave the game with his ‘dignity’ in tact and I firmly believe he’s now on the right track to be able to do so.
The last thing anyone wants is for Cousins to spiral out of control when he retires but his pathway to redemption will hit a serious fork in the road when he does. No longer will he be tested three times a week by the AFL and no longer will he have football to fall back on.
Can he stay clean in life after football?
There is nothing worse than watching former champions of sport like Wayne Carey and Gary Ablett Snr disintegrate the way they did.
The other observation I noted from the interview was how thorough his knowledge of the game is, when broaching subjects relating to football we saw a side to him that amidst all the soap opera of his life has never really come out.
Who knows there might be a special comments role for him at Fox Sports next year?
There were so many other talking points for discussion.
In relation to his time at West Coast, Cousins admitted he spent the majority of his career hiding the fact he regularly used recreational drugs.
But when Mike Sheahan suggested the 2006 premiership was tainted as a result, his response was unequivocal
“I can categorically say the use of recreational drugs did not help to play football in anyway, if anything it made it a hell of a lot harder”.
While Cousins was evasive over the real reason he shaved his head during his 12 months away from the game, at the very least he provided a much needed insight into his state of mind at the time.
He had no faith in those who were going to sit in judgment on his possible return to the game.
“That was probably one of the most trying, if not the most trying, six weeks of my 12 months off”
“I had at the time, rightly or wrongly, very little faith in the people that were going to make a decision on my future.
“Obviously, there were some concerns and I felt that the AFL was out to get me, that was just how I felt at the time.”
I think it’s really heart-warming to see him rebuilding his life.
And while Cousins is by no means a saint and still has a lot of hard work to go, the “sh*t storm” as he describes it, might just be starting to clear into much brighter future.
I hope so anyway.
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