‘Not great’: Ben Cousins reels at brutal Dancing With The Stars result

Cousins was left momentarily speechless when the scores came in for his first performance on this season of Dancing With The Stars.

Former AFL player Ben Cousins’ Dancing With The Stars debut got off to a bumpy start on Sunday night, as his attempt to dance the foxtrot was met with a brutal reception from the show’s judging panel.

The 46-year-old former West Coast and Richmond player, whose AFL career was marred by repeated drug scandals, teamed up with dance partner Siobhan Power for his first outing of the new season during Sunday’s premiere.

But Cousins’ nerves and rigid posture during the dance did not go unnoticed, with the judges all giving him tough – albeit encouraging – critiques.

Cousins put in the work during rehearsals …

… but had posture issues during his first dance.

Sharna Burgess said that while Cousins performance was not “smooth or elegant,” she wanted to see “more of [him] trying; getting out there.”

Fellow judge Helen Richey prefaced her feedback by warning Cousins that she was not trying to be mean … “ but I’m going to push you, because I would expect somebody of your talent to do what I’m going to ask of you.”

She said he had to improve his posture: “Your shoulder-weight is so far forward and your behind is so behind.”

Sharna encouraged him to push himself through the season.

Cousins conceded his scores were “not great.”

Judge Craig Revel Horwood agreed, and gave Cousins this withering assessment: “No neck, pigeon chest, a bum sticking out so far it looked like you were presenting it to the nation, darling.”

Judge Mark Wilson offered some helpful feedback, enlisting Burgess and taking to the dancefloor himself to demonstrate the simple posture techniques Cousins was getting wrong, and how they could be corrected.

So far, so encouraging, which meant Cousins might’ve been expecting less of a walloping when it came time for the judges to give their scores. He was awarded three scores of four and one of just two, from Revel Harwood, for a grand total of just 14 out of 40.

And the scores come in …

The result left Cousins momentarily speechless.

“Umm, yeah … not great scores. Obviously plenty of room for improvement, like they said,” he said.

The scores left Cousins at the bottom of the scoreboard, with less than half the points of the night’s best-performing celeb, Lisa McCune, who was awarded a total of 30 from the judges.

Dancing With The Stars continues 7pm on Monday.