Fans slam Channel 7 as Ben Cousins’ new gig revealed

Former Brownlow Medallist Ben Cousins will join the free-to-air network’s commentary team but AFL fans are outraged by the move.

AFL fans have slammed Channel 7’s decision to reward troubled AFL great Ben Cousins with a coveted commentary job for the 2025 season.

The 2005 Brownlow Medal winner has worked to get his life back on track following a staggering fall from grace after claiming the AFL’s greatest individual honour.

Cousins played 238 games for West Coast but his off-field troubles cost him the captaincy in early 2006.

Watch the biggest Aussie sports & the best from overseas LIVE on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.

After winning the Brownlow Medal in 2005 and a premiership in 2006, Cousins was sacked by the club following the 2007 season.

He returned to the AFL in 2009 to play 32 games for Richmond before retiring at the end of 2010 and from there his troubles continued.

A well-documented drug addiction landed him in jail and he also was convicted of stalking and breaching a restraining order taken out by a former partner.

But in recent years Cousins has turned his life around and put things right.

However, last year he was still denied entry into the AFL Hall of Fame due to his past indiscretions.

Ben Cousins AFL career was derailed by off-field issues. (Photo by Mark Dadswell/Getty Images)

But now Channel 7 has given him the chance to continue his redemption arc by joining AFL icon Daisy Pearce, his former West Coast teammate Mark LeCras and ex-Fremantle skipper Shaun McManus on the broadcaster’s calls of every Fremantle and West Coast home game on Sunday this year.

It comes after Cousins snagged a full-time role on Perth radio station Mix94.5 last month, after a successful cameo on Seven’s Dancing With The Stars last year.

That came after he made his debut as a Seven News sports presenter in Perth in June 2023, where he is understood to have impressed station bosses.

However, the news he is joining Channel 7’s commentary team did not go down well with many AFL fans.

“Once again screaming into the void about Western Australia and Channel 7 giving Ben Cousins airtime,” one fan posted in response to the news.

Ben Cousins has joined the Channel 7 commentary team. (Getty Images)

“I’m all for someone turning their life around, but for a known DV offender … I think it’s for the best they do it out of the public eye.”

While another said: “If you are convicted of stalking, I don’t want you beaming at me talking about errant handpasses.”

A third wrote: “I’ve been on this case for a while. And he’s also lousy at his job.”

Another added: “I am happy to see Ben Cousins healthy and fit, but it is extraordinary what the media will overlook if you have been a great footballer. The AFL love to talk about social issues, and yet jailed DV offenders get open-arm welcomes. Crazy world.”

Cousins played 238 games and booted 205 goals for West Coast between 1996 and 2007.

Daisy Pearce (left) will also commentate the WA men’s AFL games. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

He was jailed on six separate occasions in 13 years and spent seven months behind bars in 2020.

Since his release, he has spoken at length about his regret for his actions and how it took too long for him to get clean.

“I wish it hadn’t had to have taken this long, and had to run its course the way it did,” he revealed to The Front Bar in April last year.

“But yeah, it’s nice to be working and busy, have some real ambition back, and, you know, just connected back in with friends, family, and even on a community level, you know.

“Life’s never been better, to be honest.”

Originally published as Fans slam Channel 7 as Ben Cousins’ new gig revealed