Larvatus Prodeo

Ben Cousins has been drafted by Richmond.

For those of you from the rugby states who haven’t been following this rather embarrassing saga, Ben Cousins is one of the most talented AFL footballers of the modern era. As a midfielder with the West Coast Eagles, he captained the side from 2001 to 2005, won the Brownlow medal in 2005, won his club’s best and fairest award four times (in a team that also included Chris Judd, amongst other champion players), and played in two Grand Finals, with a win in 2006. Cousins, however, has a taste for mind-altering substances of various kinds, legal and illegal. He’s also had friendships with a number of Perth’s more colourful “underworld identities”; as summarized here. He was sacked by the Eagles in 2007, after being arrested by police driving driving around “erratically” with various prescription tranquilizers and – wait for it – Viagra – in his car. He was then deregistered by the AFL for 12 months, after an apparent cocaine binge while supposedly seeking rehabilitation in Los Angeles.

After lengthy debates on whether the AFL would let Cousins play again, the imposition of an onerous testing drug testing regime, and Brisbane, St. Kilda and Collingwood all considering drafting Cousins before dipping out. It seems that, in most cases, the footballing staff were keen, the club management decided that it would antagonize sponsors too much. Richmond, it seems, are prepared to take the risk of sponsor opprobrium, to pick up a proven champion, still potentially near his peak, for virtually nothing.

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