Alice Coster: As Bec Judd backs Ben Cousins, can we recognise his redemption?

When Bec Judd this week shared her support for Ben Cousins, the outrage was not unexpected, but the now-sober AFL great has owned up to his drug abuse and convictions. As he tries to atone for his past, maybe it’s time to let him move on.

Can you ever really do the time for the crime?

When Bec Judd this week shared her support for Ben Cousins, asking social media to award the former AFL star a blue tick, the storm of criticism was not unexpected.

Judd is used to what she has referred to as the “noise.” Anything she puts down on social media is immediately picked up, scrutinised and debated.

It comes with the territory of being a headline maker and Judd is as social media savvy and smart as they get.

So obviously she knew when posting a picture sitting with husband Chris Judd and his former West Coast premiership teammate, writing “OG’s only” and alerting her almost one million followers to the “Prince of Perth’s” recently created Instagram account, that it would generate a certain amount of noise.

And noise, there was. With many decrying how Judd appeared to be endorsing a former convicted prisoner.

Brownlow medallist Ben Cousins has recently been on the public path of redemption. Picture: Getty Images

Brownlow medallist Cousins, hailed as one of the all-time greats and in the top 50 by former Herald Sun chief footy writer Mike Sheahan, has recently been on the public path of redemption.

His fall from grace, from hero to zero, has been well documented, so well in fact there was even a documentary Such Is Life: The Troubled Life of Ben Cousins.

The words are also emblazoned in ink across Cousin’s torso and are the supposed last words of Ned Kelly, the bushranger standing tall and defiant with the noose around his neck as he was executed in 1880.

Cousins was a bona fide celebrity, on and off the footy field, his presence felt in every room, nightclub and place he entered.

When Bec Judd this week shared her support for Ben Cousins the storm of criticism was not unexpected. Picture: Instagram

Men wanted to be him, women wanted to be with him.

It was no secret Cousins played just as hard off the field as on it. It is a sobering timeline.

His contract with the Eagles was terminated in 2007 after continued substance use and he later spent more than a year behind bars after being convicted of stalking his former partner and the mother of his two children, Maylea Tinecheff.

As a young entertainment journalist I was given the task of trying to speak to Tinecheff when they first began dating and she moved to Melbourne. She was from his hometown and was with him during his drug spiral.

During his sentencing, his lawyer would describe Cousins’ ice habit as “the root of all his problems”.

It was no secret Cousins played just as hard off the field as on it. Picture: Getty Images

We are now seeing a similar story play out in the media with convicted former TV star Andrew O’Keefe.

Celebrity names capture media attention, especially when hundreds of thousands of Australians are battling methamphetamine addiction.

Earlier this year an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report found 1 per cent of the population, approximately 200,000 people in Australia had used methamphetamine, with our country among the world’s highest users of the drug.

Anyone who has had any connection to a user of this evil and deadly drug would attest to how it changes and rewires a person.

When someone admits to their behaviour, maybe just maybe, it’s time to let them move forward. Picture: Channel 7

They quickly turn into someone previously unknown, the loved one now a ghost of their former selves.

Gone with each puff of smoke, they become someone who will stoop to any lengths to get their hands on the glass pipe, violent, angry, unbearable and unreachable.

The “shard”, as it is sometimes referred to, is like a shard of glass, breaking and ripping families apart.

Repercussions not just dire but deadly, not just for the user but the people around them.

Cousins has owned up to this drug use and his past convictions. He has sobered up and shared his drug abuse story with hundreds of thousands of people.

We tend to have a morbid fascination about the downfall of celebrities, I know this all too well having written many stories about a famous person’s fall from grace.

In celebrity culture the fame and redemption narrative is nothing new, think Robert Downey Jnr, Hugh Grant, the list goes on and on.

But when someone admits to their behaviour, maybe just maybe, it’s time to let them move forward.

There are so many in the spotlight who prefer to hide behind their celebrity managers, giving wishy-washy, sorry-not-sorry apologies that don’t add up, such as AFL great Wayne Carey. Picture: Getty Images

There are so many in the spotlight who prefer to hide behind their celebrity managers, giving wishy-washy, sorry-not-sorry apologies that just don’t add up, such as those from convicted assaulter and AFL great Wayne Carey.

Cousins will always have the tagline that he spent time in jail and was convicted of stalking his former partner.

He doesn’t appear to have shied away from this, but instead owned up to this behaviour and tried to help others, from former prisoners to mentoring others.

Now he is trying to move on.
The footy world has again embraced him, it doesn’t hurt that he is affable and still good looking.

There has been atonement.
We don’t have to forget people’s past behaviour, but we should recognise their redemption.

Such is life.

Alice Coster is a Herald Sun columnist