How Ben Cousins regained crown as city’s prince
Ben Cousins has been for decades the subject of media scrutiny for his AFL talent, off-field behaviour, addiction and crimes, but now he’s reading the news instead of making it.
Clear-eyed, articulate, humble, charming.
This is the Ben Cousins we haven’t seen for years. This is the Ben Cousins who captivated Perth and then some – not just as a generational athlete but an AFL star with a rare intelligence and captivating personality. Back then, he had that hint of mischief in his eyes. Everyone could see it. And loved it.
What most didn’t see was the turmoil behind the cheeky smirk of the spiritual captain of the West Coast Eagles in the club’s heyday.
What played out later was tragically there for all to see in HD slow motion, as his well hidden darkness emerged and addictions swept away the guy every football fan thought they knew.
The Brownlow Medal winner and six-time All Australian played 238 games for West Coast before he was axed in 2007 after he was arrested on drug-related charges.
What followed were heartbreaking scenes in front of television cameras – semi-naked arrests, drug-addled confrontations, angry and delusional interviews, ugly substance-fuelled domestic horror interspersed with candid admissions and ultimately empty promises of redemption. Today, he is back in front of a camera. And it’s loving him again.
He’s shed the shirtless junkie uniform and that lost look.
He’s in a suit, matching it with that old glare of determination that made him a superstar.
“I feel alive again,” he said.
On Monday night, he’ll attend the Brownlow count in Melbourne for the first time since winning the code’s most coveted award in 2005.
While much of the broader AFL community moved on from the Perth-based drama of the post-football Cousins downfall – embracing a new generation of bad boys – Perth has never been able to get over him.
To understand the Cousins story is to understand the uniqueness of Perth. He was so loved and the sympathy was long lost, with him having promised recovery one too many times. Right now, however, seeing is believing.
This is his first sit-down interview in years, an interview conducted without minders, lawyers or the promise of a pay cheque at the end.
He’s been hard to pin down admittedly, spending some months in jail in 2020 after being found guilty of stalking and intimidating his former partner – it was the sixth time in 13 years that he’d been incarcerated.
Now he’s on the other side.
The West Coast premiership player and Brownlow medallist is the latest addition to the Seven News team in Perth, where he reads the morning news sports bulletin and is emerging as one of the city’s leading sports reporters.
He arrives at work three hours early nearly every day. He rehearses for hours. He even asks to practise “in case things go wrong”, meaning if the autocue dies or there is another technical issue, he’ll still be able to deliver results.
He reads over his scripts with the same intensity he applied when he was at the height of his AFL career. An unrelenting focus. Striving for perfection.
Yet what makes this different from all of the other times he said things would be different?
Having a purpose in his life, a new career and the most important thing of all – his children.
He doesn’t want praise. He winces at the mention of a “redemption story”. He just wants to do “a good job”. This is a return to the media for Cousins. He worked as a roving Today Tonight reporter in his early 20s and made regular appearances on Fox Sports.
“I’m somebody that hasn’t been given a second chance,” he said. “I’ve been given a third, fourth and fifth for whatever reason. But that’s what it’s taken. I want to make sure that other people in that sort of position are going to get the same understanding I do and the same help along the way I did.”
Cousins credits the compassion of strangers and steadfast friends, like broadcaster and Perth Football Club president Adrian Barich, who played alongside his father, Bryan Cousins. “I’ve never seen anyone prepare like him,” Barich said. “He mitigates the risks even in recorded interviews. He’s curious and keen to learn.”
Seven News Perth news director Ray Kuka admits it was a risk taking on Cousins and appreciates how he handles “direct, raw and candid” feedback.
“From being a bloke I once chased around to be the story, I’ve actually learned a lot from him,” Kuka said. “He’s quite the leader without realising. And wise. As you would be after his experiences. He knows he had work to do to sit at the desk alongside presenters with 40 years’ experience, and that his trademark smile would help for a second or two, but then he had to deliver. Newsrooms are unforgiving places, and he’s really earning his place.”
Kuka also enjoys the quieter moments, getting to know Cousins where the two dads discuss schooling, excursions and whether they should allow their young kids access to iPads.
His new Seven colleagues – from management to production staff – all agree Cousins’ children, who he now sees regularly, are the reason he won’t reoffend. “He lives for them,” both Barich and Kuka said.
As well as establishing himself as a presenter, Cousins has also been working in the resources sector, where he’s been thrust into the world of ESG, something he hopes to pursue further alongside his burgeoning presenting career.
Recently, in order to expose himself to new experiences, he attended an event with Anthony Albanese in Perth. It was a keynote address where the Prime Minister was speaking to top business leaders, such as Qantas chairman Richard Goyder and Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes.
“There were also school kids – the brightest kids from some of the best schools who wanted to meet the PM that day – once they saw Ben, that was it, game over,” said Barich. “They just ran over and asked for selfies. He obliged and stood there patiently for what felt like hours.”
Cousins admits he “fed off” the adulation of fans during his prime playing days, but his more mellow disposition now is a world away from how he was presented in the infamous Such Is Life – The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins documentary that aired in 2010.
There is a heft to his presence now, not just hollow words. He’s not dwelling on the past, focusing instead on the road ahead. “I know I’m starting from a long way back but I needed to feel like I was making a contribution,” he said.
“Once I was released, I wasn’t quite at the stage where I felt I was in a position to get back into full-time work so I connected with a community football club, just training a couple times a week over the summer. It was one I hadn’t had any involvement with prior so I didn’t know anybody at that stage.
“I was out of my comfort zone and getting to meet new people. It was football for me that was a constant. I enjoy having a kick and it was that which got me back involved in the community. It played a really important part in my recovery.”
The organisation was the Queens Park Football Club – an amateur team with the motto “We are stronger together”. As well as success on the field, it also fosters players off it via regular “men’s yarning nights” to discuss mental health and suicide awareness.
After three months at Queens Park in 2021, which went from playing in front of crowds of about 100 to packed stands of 1000 fans when Cousins, then 42 years old, pulled on the boots, he felt he was ready to take the next step.
“I felt I was in a position to take on full-time work and that was just a really great lesson and reminder for me, of all people, of the important roles that local footy clubs and having a community plays in people’s lives. They are full of good people.”
Queens Park president Ross White said Cousins’ interest in playing with the team came about through a relationship with the club’s coach.
“Our league coach had met Ben through family connections and that all came out of Ben’s last jail stint,” Mr White said. “Ninety per cent of our players are Indigenous and at times people in the past have not really been interested in us … We struggle with different issues and trying to get support. Ben coming along generated a lot of interest … He chose us, we didn’t choose him.”
Cousins is on the sports and sobriety wagon and intends to stay there.
These days to relax, instead of being out until all hours, going days without sleep, he unwinds at home with a good book before bed. Right now he’s reading A Diamond in the Dust by Frauke Bolten-Boshammer.
Cousins understands pressure, and he’s cracked before. Time will tell if he can shine as he once did, but for now, the future is looking bright.
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