The Sad Story of Ben Cousins

After all is said and done, I hope that Ben Cousins is remembered for being an amazing footballer, as opposed to what his life has become.

A picture of health – one of the best conditioned footballers we have seen grace the football fields at the elite level.

Ironically, it was his chiselled physique and dominance on the field that masked his unhealthy lifestyle of it.

The substance abuse issues all came to a head during the honeymoon period of West Coast’s 2006 premiership and was made further public upon the release of a documentary and book in the following years.

While no doubt it was not the intention, I feel that the ‘Such is Life’ documentary glorified the issues that Cousins had.

The juxtaposition of the partying drug addict-footballer double life that Cousins lived appealed to young audiences.

He was revered in a rock star kind of way as the poster boy of the ‘work hard, play hard’ culture that is so appealing to many.

His public dealings with the AFL and other authority figures added to the antiestablishment cult-figure aura that engulfed the Brownlow medallist.

I was 16 when the documentary was released and guiltily admit to observing Cousins’ actions from afar and finding them somewhat humourous in my immature mind.

But now his predicament is just sad – this is a man whose life is falling apart very publically in front of his family, friends and two children.

There is undoubtedly a very serious concern from those close to him about his long-term future.

This is evident when they are questioned about his well-being. It may not be the words that they use, but more the expression and tone in their voice.

Numerous stories have floated around social media over the past couple of weeks documenting the bizarre and erratic behaviours of Cousins.

These stories could just be hearsay but where there is smoke there is fire and his behaviour on a Perth highway last night was certainly unusual.

Cousins’ life is a sad portrait of the insidiousness of methamphetamines and hopefully, somehow, Ben can pull himself out of this rut and get clean.