‘It can happen so easily’: How pressures of footy sent Cousins into downward spiral

Former footy great Ben Cousins says his drug addiction spiral began when he was looking for an “escape” from the pressures of football, before “everything unravelled” — and it was a long road back.

Former footy great Ben Cousins has opened up about his lost years trapped in addiction and how his drug spiral began when he was looking for an “escape” from the pressure of football.

Cousins was superstar for the West Coast Eagles in the early 2000s, winning the Brownlow Medal in 2005, being a key part of the club’s 2006 premiership victory, and being club co-captain in 2001 and then captain from 2002 — 2005.

While his career soared on field thanks in part to his obsessive training habits, off field he was playing a dangerous game with drugs.

Ben Cousins played his first trial match with Richmond at Gosch's Paddock in front of an adoring crowd. Ben showing off his tattoo.

“It can happen so easily ... early in my career, I really embraced that concept of hard work and throwing myself into footy,” Cousins told the Ball Magnets podcast.

“I think there were some things about my personality or my nature that predisposed me to feeling like I needed an escape or to get away.

“For me, I did that in ways that, maybe not in the beginning, eventually became problematic. “In the beginning it was the odd night out drinking with whoever, but pretty quickly for me that did not quite hit the spot and it was taking something.

“You know, everyone’s path is different, but for me it (addiction) didn’t happen overnight.

“Training year in, year out and my performance, if you like, improved (and) that reinforced (that) some of these things I was doing were not necessarily bad for me, they were sort of working for us.

“But there was a bigger picture and then eventually everything unravelled.”

Rebecca Judd and Ben Cousins at the 2024 Brownlow Medal.

When it unravelled his life fell apart in a big way. Life after football has been filled with lost years as Cousins hit rock bottom and was jailed three times, before finding the support and tools to get out of the destructive spiral.

“I know myself I have been afforded not just a second chance, but a third, fourth, fifth and however many more because I have needed it and I have been so lucky that I have been given it,” he said.

“I have not been able to do it on my own.

“If I had my time over again, I would just have loved to, before I went too far down that path, have sat down with some different people, .. professionals if you like, who I could have thrashed out a few possible alternative ways to get the same result or the same release or feeling like I’d had an escape.”

Ben Cousins says footy has been the longest constant in his life.

Cousins told the podcast he started “the long game” of getting his life back on track several years ago by training with a local footy team in Perth.

“Footy has been the longest constant in my life, so I enjoy having a kick, other than that I was out of my comfort zone having to meet new people, put myself out there a bit,” he said.

“It was just another reminder to me, of all people, the important role footy clubs play in people’s lives.

“For me, especially, (it was) connection with community which at the time was important, (having been) isolated at different times, overcoming things like regret, shame.

“It is pretty hard to do that on your couch at home. You sort of need to work though that and put a bit of time and space between some of those things that haunt you and (then) get back involved in the community.”

Not long after getting reconnected through local footy, Cousins was ready to find work.

“There have been big chunks of the 10 years leading up to this point (that) I had spent not working,” he said.

“I was not on holidays, either. It was this terrible sort of in between place that I just was not happy (in).

“A (work) opportunity came along and then at the end of a long day, or the end of a long week, it felt like no matter what I was doing I had justified my existence.

“Then all of a sudden you can start to take yourself a bit more seriously or (have) a bit of self respect. Getting back to some good habits, turning up, doing what you say you are going to do, being where you say you are going to be, people start to look at you differently and you start to look at yourself differently and all of a sudden you have something to hang on to.”

In early 2023, Cousins joined Channel Seven in Perth as a sports presenter. He appeared on 7’s Dancing With The Stars this year and was a guest at this year’s Brownlow Medal.