League must give the Brownlow medallist a chance to ply his trade again.
N OTHING less than a late-breaking calamity, such as an arrest in broad daylight, can stop Ben Cousins from receiving the all-clear from the umpires known as the AFL Commission today.
Cousins will surely be allowed to resume his career — what choice does the AFL have but to allow him to ply his trade? He's passed the drug tests he wants to play, and, whether it wants him running around or not, legally and morally, the AFL must give him the opportunity to play.
But if the league won't be an impediment, he still has a significant hurdle to clear: the clubs and their innate conservatism.
As it stands, only two clubs, St Kilda and the Brisbane Lions, are known to have maintained an interest in Cousins. While one can never discount a late, opportunistic bid by a club once the player is definitely available, it seems unlikely that there will be any other bidders.
Collingwood, which made the early running and did undue diligence, got cold feet. Some at West Coast talked about it, but the Eagles were never going to accept Cousins back after the entire club had spent 12 months trying to repair the impression of a rampant drug culture.
Cousins' difficulty lies in the fact that hiring him represents unchartered territory: no club has ever knowingly attempted to take on a recovering drug addict, and, as such, the decision is much more complicated than the simple need for a hard-running, gun midfielder.
If it was merely about football and the ability to play the game, a dozen clubs would be jostling for him. But the decision to enlist Ben Cousins involves so much more than a judgement on his extraordinary prowess as a footballer.
Clubs ask not just whether he can get a kick, but whether he can truly kick the habit. They have to satisfy their leadership groups (not so hard) and corporate sponsors (much trickier) — the latter having increased clout in the current financial meltdown (sponsors were a factor in Collingwood's withdrawal). Ultimately, their board has to approve.
They need contingency plans in the event that he can't stay sober, and a strategy for dealing with the media circus and obsessive reporting of all that he does. They will ponder whether even a pristine Cousins would become an unwelcome distraction.
The Saints and Lions have to negotiate these various obstacles, neither club's board having yet given the formal green light. St Kilda's board has told the football department to "continue due diligence". In practice, the clubs with an interest can't take it any further until the AFL has freed him to play.
In the event that he is drafted — and we should not discount the possibility that he won't play again at the elite level — the club that picks him must downplay expectations, making it clear that, "Ben still has a long way to go" and that a relapse might occur. The last thing Cousins needs is the burden of unrealistic, Messianic expectations.
One suspects that, whatever individual commissioners think — and there are bound to be different shades of opinion in the room today— collectively, the AFL wouldn't be distressed if Cousins didn't grace the field again. He doesn't present the wholesome image that the hierarchy wishes to portray, especially in Sydney, where the National Rugby League's media allies are quick to jump on anything that makes AFL players look as antisocial as rugby's hoons.
That said, one can only hope that he gets back, not simply for his own health and well-being, but because of the inspiration he would provide.
And finally, lest we forget the reason, besides the drugs, that we find Cousins so riveting: He's a great footballer.