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Ben Cousins still has a story to tell. He hinted at it, but the full version is not for release - just yet.
The Brownlow Medallist's first public appearance in Sydney on Wednesday felt a bit like eating an entree, only to told there was no main course.
You were left wanting more.
It took, of all sportspeople, the loud-mouthed Anthony Mundine to coax him into the spotlight to help promote the anti-drug message to youth.
It was a welcomed sight. But the circumstances behind it were even more pleasing.
His manager, Ricky Nixon, and father Bryan, didn't know until it was revealed earlier this week that their troubled client and son was preparing to face the music.
Perhaps, at 29, Cousins is maturing and taking on board responsibility.
It was the first time Cousins answered questions about his drug use, almost twelve months after the Eagles suspended him.
It was still a stage-managed performance, but not as scripted as previous appearances.
Still, he answered scant. Just three questions and we still need to hear more.
What he used? How long he used? Who supplied him? Did he ever play on drugs? Is he still addicted?
There is lingering, unanswered questions about the death of one of his closest friends, former teammate Chris Mainwairing, who died last September of a suspected drug overdose.
Cousins was the last to see him alive. What happened that fateful night?
The former Eagle apologised for not being able to go into the details of his drug addiction, but said that there would be "a time when I can".
Hopefully that time is not too far away, for as long as the saga continues the chance football could suffer another Ben Cousins increases.
His explicit story - and the inevitable community fall-out - will be the wake-up call football authorities need.
Cousins said he won't be the first footballer to have battled the perils of drugs.
Infact, he's not.
There will be at least five repeat drug users running around this season, that have been uncovered, under the league's universally considered lenient three-strikes policy.
But if Cousins was allowed to pull on a guernsey in 2008, that number wouldn't change.
And therein lies the fundamental problem.
Cousins, reportedly, never actually tested positive for illicit drugs.
Not even before he was first suspended, last March. Not after he returned from a three-week rehab stint in Malibu. Not after Mainwairing's shocking death.
How had Cousins escaped a positive test or possession charge after a long battle with drugs?
The reality is, based on the number of tests carried out before 2007, Cousins never tested positive because he was rarely, if ever, actually tested.
There have been mis-guided comparisons between Cousins' silence and disgraced NRL star Andrew Johns - and how the latter bared his soul after he was arrested in possession of ectasy. But the reality is there was a fundamental difference.
Johns had retired, however Cousins hadn't.
He was playing on the weekend, presumably indulging in ecstasy, cocaine and the methamphetamine ice in the days and nights that followed - and then coming down from the cocktail of drugs while training for his next match.
It was good to see Cousins addressing community concern, but now he needs to help address our concern about the holes in the competition's drug policy.
Cousins' private battle has only raised more about the futility of the league's illict drugs policy.
Your Comments
11 Comments
See you in seriousville one day maybe -chow
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