Ben Cousins apologises to West Coast in tell-all television interview
After years of battling a rampant drug problem and constant run-ins with the law, fallen AFL star Ben Cousins desperately wants a normal life. But Eagles premiership coach John Worsfold says a tragic reality faces the Brownlow medallist.
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Athletes and sports journalists have slammed Channel 7 after its interview with Ben Cousins aired last night, with an ex-Wallaby among the identities slamming the network
Former Wallaby Matt Giteau said: “Channel 7 couldn’t care less about Ben Cousins in my opinion.
“Just wanted the story. I felt he was taken advantage of badly and the whole thing was just sad. Say what you want of him but I really hope he gets the help he desperately needs.”
“Horrible seeing Ben Cousins like this,” added Daniel Garb. “Tragically it doesn’t seem like he believes he can conquer it.”
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It comes as fans watching on were left disappointed by the lack of new information to come from the interview, which was billed as a shocking look into the life and times of Cousins and his fall from grace.
Many were also heartbroken after watching a former star was desperate to get his life back on track.
In the interview, Cousins apologised to West Coast for helping cultivate the crippling drug culture which threatened to derail the powerhouse club for several years.
Eagles premiership coach John Worsfold recently visited Cousins for the first time in 10 years and conceded that the normal life Cousins craved was likely to elude the long-time addict.
Cousins, 41, recently received his driver’s licence and wants to spend more time with his children but, desperately needs to find a job and a place to live.
Worsfold said the 2005 Brownlow Medallist had long rejected his attempts to help.
“He (Cousins) was looking at me saying, ‘How can you say what I'm doing is bad when you haven't ever done it?’” Worsfold told Channel 7’s documentary Ben Cousins: Coming Clean, which airs on Sunday.
The Eagles finally sacked Cousins in 2007 after he was arrested for drug possession and refused to submit to a blood test. The AFL Commission then banned Cousins for 12 months.
West Coast finished third in 2007, but crashed out of the finals in straight-sets before nosediving to second-last in 2008 and collecting the club’s only wooden spoon in 2010.
The Eagles slowly started cleaning out the toxic culture that had festered for many years under Cousin’s captaincy, but was masked by the 2006 premiership.
“Oh, I am sorry (to West Coast). I am remorseful,” Cousins said.
“And the fallout from that has been pretty significant on the club. So, it has taken a while since that time for the club to find itself back in a position like it is today.”
Worsfold said Cousins never understood the damage he was causing others.
“Well, all I'd say is that he didn't believe … there was anything wrong with that (his drug use),” Worsfold said.
“That this is not affecting anyone, this is for me and my private life.
“Now that obviously escalated, where he didn't really have control at some point. But I would guess that for a long part of it, he'd thought that was all under control.”
COUSINS: I’M LUCKY TO STILL BE ALIVE
Fallen footy star Ben Cousins has revealed he nearly died on several occasions from his wild drug binges.
Cousins who went from premiership player to prisoner and has a long and public history of drug abuse makes the harrowing admission in the Channel 7documentary Ben Cousins — Coming Clean.
“I’ve probably at times pushed things … too far,” Cousins, 41, says.
“There’s been times where … I’ve been lucky to sort of, just scrape through.
“I’m fortunate that I just, I don’t need to, to do that or take it, you know, that far anymore.”
He believes he is lucky to be still alive.
“A lot of good things have happened to me up until this point in my life,” he said.
“It is important for me to remember and remind myself of that because I am one of the lucky people, I am one of the luckiest people I know.”
Cousins also tells of his time behind bars, he was first jailed in 2017, and the fear that held for him.
“(It was) probably the first time in a long time where you feel completely powerless over the situation you are in and you can’t control, manipulate, change the predicament you are in,” he said.
“I am certainly not proud. No matter what I did I was going to be forced to go through it and suck it up and that scared me.”
The 2005 Brownlow Medallist was put on garbage duty while in jail in Perth.
“I had few different ones (jobs),” he said.
“I was in the garden, I was even in, well they call it (the) cleaning party, which is doing all the garbage and that but within the jail.
“I nearly looked at maybe doing that on the outside when I first got out. I thought it would keep me in reasonable nick, get my work done early, but I did not follow through.”
After leading a high flying life during his AFL days, Cousins has spent time homeless over the chaotic recent years and now understands he needs to find a permanent place to live.
“I am sort of in between joints, that is what I have been saying for a longtime even when I was at the folks place, I was in between joints,” he said.
“I do need to find something less temporary. I have relearnt from being in jail that I don’t need a lot. It does not need to be grand or it does not need to be expensive, if it is mine and it is well kept it does not need to be a lot for me to be happy.”
Cousins was interviewed for five days earlier this month by Basil Zempilas for the documentary and also caught up with his former coach John Worsfold, fellow Brownlow Medallist Nat Fyfe and Nic Naitanui, the West Coast Eagles player who now wears his famous number 9 jumper, during filming.
Cousins said he regretted the damage his drug fuelled behaviour caused the Eagles.
“Oh, I am sorry. I am remorseful,” he said.
“And the fallout from that has been pretty significant on the club. So, it has taken a while since that time for the club to find itself back in a position like it is today.”
And in a surprise twist it is revealed that Home And Away star Lynne McGranger helped him begin to confront his addictions while in jail.
Cousins reached out to McGranger his most recent stint in jail.
The pair became unlikely penpals.
“I’m not sure why Ben wanted to reach out to me. I guess it’s because of … my character is a recovering alcoholic. She knows addiction,” McGranger said.
Seven did pay for the Cousins interview however the money is being administered by a lawyer and has not gone directly to the troubled ex-Eagle.
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Originally published as Ben Cousins apologises to West Coast in tell-all television interview
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