Eagles & Dockers: Glad I'm a Bomber

[Filthy]

Talk about living in a fishbowl. Arrogant bastards.

The Eagle who crash-landed
Peter Wilmoth
December 17, 2006

The image of Ben Cousins lying drunk at Southgate a fortnight ago was shocking only in the context of the rules of fame in the 21st century. If another 28-year-old had been photographed lying there, it would have been a ribbing at work. But when you are probably the most popular footballer to have ever played in Western Australia, a rich, glamorous icon with the world at your feet, a Brownlow Medal around your neck and a string of controversies to your name, the photograph takes on a sad, even sinister dimension.

Are any of those people in Perth who watch him play and thrill to his courage, persistence and leadership skills asking the question: what is Ben Cousins doing with his life?

Four days after Cousins was arrested at Southgate for being drunk in public following a verbal clash with police, leading to him spending four hours in jail, Andrew Demetriou came out firing - what turned out to be a popgun.

The AFL chief admitted the behaviour of Cousins was not a "great advertisement" for the game, and said "it's very important to make sure we deal with this professionally and that we send out a message".

So what kind of message would be sent out? The Eagles, Cousins' increasingly embarrassed employer, decided on this message: it would take no action towards its champion midfielder and one-time marquee name. "The club believes that Ben has already received sufficient punishment through the public scrutiny of his arrest," was its statement.

Not since Gary Ablett has the football world witnessed a flawed genius whose breathtaking feats on the field stand in such contrast to his poor and sometimes bizarre behaviour off it.

Cousins' extraordinary story can only be understood in the context of the culture of the West Coast Eagles and the role this powerful club plays in Western Australia. It's a story about wealth, power and the expectation and smothering attention of a two-team town. Cousins has been a huge star all his adult life. It's perhaps not surprising that cracks have appeared. His defenders are at pains to stress that he's just a bloke who plays football magnificently and stuffs up occasionally.

Cousins' reputation as the dark prince of West Australian football was confirmed in May last year when he and ruckman Michael Gardiner became embroiled in the investigation into a January shooting between bikie gang rivals at a popular Perth nightclub. Cousins and Gardiner both came under criticism from WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan for choosing not to answer certain questions about alleged phone conversations they had with one of two men charged over the shooting incident.

Cousins issued a statement. "As captain of the West Coast Eagles football club, I am extremely disappointed with the public perception of my continued association with people who are regarded by others as underworld figures. I have obviously let down a lot of people and I apologise to my family, friends and the football club, in particular my teammates, and the public of Western Australia."

Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett said Cousins and Gardiner were on their last chances.

In February this year, Cousins abandoned his $140,000 Mercedes near a booze bus and fled, reportedly trying to avoid police by jumping into the Canning River, disposing of his shirt and then ending up outside a locked door at the Bluewater Grill restaurant. He was later charged with traffic offences and eventually fined $900.

Several meetings took place between the club and Cousins before Cousins announced he was stepping down from the captaincy. It was not officially clear if he jumped or had been pushed.

The wagons circled quickly. Coach John Worsfold hastily defended Cousins, telling the ABC: "The countless hours that Ben has spent visiting sick children, personal requests to visit people he's never met, to visit hospitals, to spend time signing autographs is not covered, and as a role model in that regard, he'd be one of the outstanding members of the community."

He was outstanding again, for all the wrong reasons, earlier this month. A man who was "helping" Cousins decided to take a photo of the prone footballer. This is where celebrity bites. The awful image of Cousins lying at Southgate, clearly alcohol-affected, was hard to reconcile with those of him holding his Brownlow Medal in 2005 or standing with John Worsfold and Chris Judd, the man who reluctantly replaced him as captain, on the premiership dais just 10 weeks ago, encouraged to share the glory by his teammates for whom he remains the "spiritual leader".

With the incidents covered nation-wide - in Perth, The West Australian newspaper gave over its first five pages to Cousins' flight from the booze bus - some might have caved in, but Cousins is made of stronger stuff. Four months after the nightclub incident, he won the Brownlow Medal and led the Eagles to within a whisker of the premiership. This year, seven months after another humiliation, he was a premiership hero, earning All Australian selection for the sixth time.

With this capacity to repeatedly bounce back from off-field embarrassment with stunning on-field achievement, there are tempting parallels with Shane Warne. But in Perth, Cousins is a one-off, a superstar and a publicity-magnet, almost universally feted and fawned over and, until Judd took over the captaincy, the bedrock of the Eagles' marketing campaign. All of which means that, according to some close observers of WA football, when he acts up, he is forgiven.

It would be hard to overstate Cousins' status in Western Australia. At 28, he is rich, a pin-up boy and, if not the best then probably the most popular footballer to have ever played football in the football-obsessed city. Local commentator Dennis Cometti once said you could sell 500 tickets to watch Cousins eat a chicken sandwich.

Accordingly, it will take more than a string of misdemeanors to dislodge local loyalty. Veteran sports commentator George Grljusich of radio 6PR says there is a small "prudish element in society, a righteous group of people" who feel a rage at what Cousins does. "Many normal supporters would regard him as one of them - they get around a barbecue and get pissed."

Compartmentalising his problems has become a famous skill. "He has a special quality," says Grljusich. "He can overcome his severe embarrassment. He comes from a good family and he would have been severely embarrassed. A lot of people would have dropped their bundle in those circumstances, but Ben is able to continue to work as normal. When things like this happen, he feels the need to further prove himself. These things act as a catalyst."

Despite his off-field behaviour, Cousins enjoys extraordinary support in the west. During the weekend radio shows he hosts, Grljusich says that out of dozens of callers "99 per cent were supportive of Ben".

Former Eagles player Karl Langdon says he was surprised the Southgate incident received such wide coverage. "Running away from a booze bus and falling asleep on a bench in Southgate are poles apart," he says.

While conceding that Cousins has made some mistakes, Langdon says the footballer is a victim of the "guilt by association" that can dog footballers because they happen to attend nightclubs with insalubrious characters. "I've rubbed shoulders with the same people," Langdon says. "These people have a presence in nightclubs, they want to talk to you about footy, and then, when you do, suddenly you are mates of theirs." After everything, Langdon says, Cousins is still "regarded as a hero".

The top end of town, many of whom are influential Eagles supporters, have other ideas. Nigel Satterley, a Perth property developer and high-profile Eagles member, says he and others in the city's corporate world believe Cousins' behaviour was disappointing. "Most people wish he would conduct himself appropriately. It damages his personal brand and that's for him to work out." With a note of exasperation Satterley added: "If you or I get pissed, we go home. If you walk around and tell the cops you are Ben Cousins and you get arrested, we can't help that."

Cousins' brilliance on the field, and his willingness to run all day until he is literally sick, is well-documented.

Local observers believe his status has ensured a protective layer around him. The Eagles were quick to punish forward Quinten Lynch after a drink-driving escapade in 2004 (he was fined and suspended) and to sack ruckman and Cousins' friend Michael Gardiner after he smashed his car into two parked cars while over the legal limit earlier this year. The "trial by media" exoneration wasn't extended to the pair.

In Perth football circles, the view is that the Eagles moved on Lynch and Gardiner because they weren't of Cousins' calibre, and that Cousins is an untouchable. "He's a brilliant young player, a good-looking kid, he's got charm, he's the whole package," said Mark Duffield, of The West Australian, who has reported WA football for 15 years.

"He's been indulged all his life. Too few, apart from his family and the club, have been prepared to say to him, 'You shouldn't have done that'. He's basically had the run of the farm."

Cousins, the son of former West Australian star Bryan Cousins, who played 67 games for Geelong, started playing senior football at 17 and became a superstar in his early 20s in a city where the two AFL teams - the Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers - are bitter rivals who play it tough off the field. It's not always pleasant. "The one-on-one town breeds a nastier football culture than in a town of 10 clubs," says Duffield. "In Melbourne, you tend to be able to have well-rounded conversations about football. Over here, there's a nastiness to it."

Covering a two-team town can have its special challenges, as Duffield found out when, after the booze bus incident, he said Cousins should stand down from the captaincy or be relieved of it by the club. Many Eagles fans didn't like the media taking on a favourite son. Rather than criticise Cousins, some talkback callers blamed the police for setting up the booze bus and the media for its wide coverage.

Everywhere Duffield went - in the street, in taxis - he was deluged with pro-Cousins supporters to the point where he decided to stay out of circulation. "I went out twice in three months," the reporter says.

In trying to understand Cousins, it's helpful to consider the culture from which he sprang. He is a product of a club that is rich, powerful, used to success and intimidating. "A lot of the media are frightened to take them on," Duffield says of the Eagles. "You are not just taking on a football club, you are taking on the big end of town."

They are bred tough, from the coach down. In March 2006, as a media gathering prepared for a boundary-side conference with Fremantle assistant coach Michael Broadbridge, Worsfold ran 70 metres across Subiaco Oval to call the media "f---ing spastic". Worsfold was angry that reporters had breached an Eagles club directive that bans them from standing inside the fence, a move instigated after The West Australian reported Worsfold's dressing down of players after player Beau Waters was hit by a taxi in the early hours of the morning.

On another occasion, Worsfold turned on West Australian reporter Craig O'Donoghue. O'Donoghue approached Worsfold after a press conference, during which the coach had said he had no problem with Waters getting hit by the cab, even though he'd taken a harder line on the issue with the players. O'Donoghue told Worsfold he'd be reporting the coach's comments to the players.

"Half the team stood there watching," O'Donoghue remembers. "I got the famous Worsfold stare as he questioned my professionalism, morals and ethics over and over again. He reminded me that he worked for the West Coast Eagles and I worked for a 'shit newspaper'. It was confronting."

Says a media insider: "They attempt to paint anyone who goes against them as coming from the lunatic fringe. It's a typical stance of a body that knows they hold the balance of power. They could come out tomorrow and say 'the Earth is flat' and the next day, according to the Eagles, it would be officially flat."

The Eagles' tentacles spread wide in the west. After Gardiner's car crash in July, Nisbett suggested Gardiner was suffering from depression. Gardiner had never spoken of depression and his family were angry at the presumption. Duffield rang an ethicist to seek views on whether the club was out of line. The ethicist "tried to hose the story down" and then one hour later the Eagles were aware of Duffield's investigations.

"Obviously, loyalty to the Eagles over-rode other considerations," Duffield says. "They are a powerful, well-run club, but the extent of their power in Perth is sometimes stretched to the point where it's unhealthy."

Footballers behaving badly is not a new phenomenon, and certainly not confined to the Wild West. The attention the young gods receive in the media is fine when things are sunny, but commensurately bad when they're not. After the Lynch incident, former WA Premier Geoff Gallop said there was "a lack of reality" in the lives of AFL players. "They're getting too much money, too quickly, without any relationship to the real world."

Both Ben Cousins and his father, Bryan, who is also Cousins' manager, declined to speak to The Sunday Age.

On top of everything else he has done for the Eagles, Cousins has now helped make them a punchline. "I saw the Eagles on TV last night," local stand-up comic Jeff Hewitt often tells his audience. "Did anyone else watch Crimestoppers?"

"That always goes down well," Hewitt says.

But not everyone's laughing. The Cousins story, like Ablett's and that of ex-Collingwood star Chris Tarrant, is salutary: superstars are forgiven a lot as long as they remain useful, but when their services are no longer required, it's a different story.

Contacted about Cousins, AFL chief Andrew Demetriou wouldn't be drawn but, through a spokesman, said: "As a general comment, the AFL's view is that AFL players must always conform to community expectations on behaviour. No AFL player, like any citizen, should ever believe they are above the law or not required to meet expected social standards."

Mark Duffield wrote earlier this month that people with Cousins in Melbourne say he was no more intoxicated than others there and that he was unlucky to be targeted by police. "(Cousins) has too many incidents to his name to claim bad luck as the sole source of his troubles. Sooner or later, a little skirmish is going to turn into an almighty collision if he can't get things right off the field."

[Doctor Fish]

I know he's an idiot and all, but really, what's the harm in getting legless in the off-season and curling up for a kip outside the casino? I do it all the time. Even shared my favorite bench with Ben on the night in question. Special stuff indeed...

Seriously though Filth. Talk about media beat-up. Who the bloody hell is Peter Wilmoth?...

[tom9779]

absolutely nothing.

leave the bloke alone to make his own choices.

[jimmyc1985]

Damn the idiot editor of the newspaper that allowed this story to be printed; what a waste of paper.

[rama_fan]

I was shattered I didnt see him that night. I was at a nightclub across the road from Crown Casino and would have walked past the park bench where he was only about 30 minutes earlier.

Mountain out of a molehill though I reckon, Cousins was just stupid enough to pass out in the city, rather than in a hotel room.

[Filthy]

I think you gentlemen miss the point of the article.

Who cares if Cousins can't hold his piss. The point of the article was the unhealthy extraordinary influence exerted by mostly the Eagles in the corridors of power in Perth.

Thank God I was born in Moonee Ponds and follow a little suburban Club in Napier St that is not to big for its boots.

[Doctor Fish]

I think you gentlemen miss the point of the article.

Who cares if Cousins can't hold his piss. The point of the article was the unhealthy extraordinary influence exerted by mostly the Eagles in the corridors of power in Perth.

Thank God I was born in Moonee Ponds and follow a little suburban Club in Napier St that is not to big for its boots.

But the same shite happens in Melbourne Filth. To say it only goes on at the Eagles is piss-poor journalism in my opinion...

Not that I'm sticking up for them. You only had to see how gracious they were when they won the flag to see the character of the club...

[ealesy]

yeah look at the Collingwood dealings with the TAC Cup after both Cam Cloke abd Chad Morrison got pinged for major violations.

Eddie steps in, uses his power and connections to save there sponsorship deal. On the other hand Jay Schulz gets done for drink driving and the TAC can't tear up their contract with Richmond fast enough.

Doesn't only happen in the West Flithy!!

[robrulz5]

They can't compare Cousins to Gary Ablett.

[swoodley]

They can't compare Cousins to Gary Ablett.

In what context rob?

Unless you live in Perth, you would have no idea how big he is here so everything he does is scrutinised to the nth degree be it for his footballing skills or his ability to get himself into "interesting" circumstances