Cousins makes Tigers
Caroline Wilson | February 15, 2009
IT WAS never going to be just about the football. From the moment Ben Cousins moved to Melbourne shortly before Christmas and was spotted in Chapel Street buying a juice, the panicked sightings and subsequent reports to Tigerland began.
For the men in charge at Richmond — already a little punch drunk, shell-shocked even from the massive plunge they had taken and the torturous debate that preceded the recruitment — a deep collective breath was required.
No sooner was Cousins seen in a Richmond coffee house with Kane Johnson and Matthew Richardson than he was spotted out with Michael Gardiner. One minute at Punt Road, the next at Riva in St Kilda. Pretty quickly, for everyone's sanity, a dose of pragmatism was required.
And it is not a criticism to suggest that the club continues to make it up as it goes along where Cousins is concerned. After all, that is the nature of the illness that led to his year-long ban in the first place. The brilliant footballer remains a day-to-day proposition who, today, is looking pretty good.
For a start, the Tigers have not reach a united view regarding the documentary, which remains unfinished and unsold, although, depending on who you talk to, could find a network within weeks. Richmond has the right to veto the program, which it has not yet seen. One school of thought at the club would rather it be programmed and done with before April, another strong view would have it shelved until Cousins' career at the club is finished.
Two days ago, when Cousins was flying to Perth with Johnson, Richardson and president Gary March, some extra marketing demands on the star recruit became the cause of some tense communications between club and manager Ricky Nixon. In the end on Friday, Cousins signed 50 jumpers for the Tigers who have now marginally boosted his wage — he remains outside the top 20 money earners — via the additional services allowance.
It is beyond dispute that if Cousins was a pariah in the eyes of the Victorian football public, he is now a hero. Football has welcomed back the prodigal son whose appearance at Gosch's Paddock 10 days ago created more excitement than any intra-club match in memory. Richmond's membership is almost 25 per cent ahead of this time last year and surely the player and the interest he has generated must count for at least half of that.
Cousins remains elusive. He has not yet come close to being part of the furniture at Richmond and at the club's function in Perth on Friday night referred to the Tigers in the third person. No cameras were allowed into the function and when he stepped off the plane at Perth Airport, March spoke to the media in Cousins' place.
Among the players, he remains relatively aloof, although he has acknowledged the overwhelming nature of the welcome he has received. The pussy-footing that accompanies any conversation between media and club regarding Cousins is an environment largely of his own creation, but has come about also because no one can truly predict whether or not the Tigers' risky decision will pay off.
But the answer to the bigger question — should Richmond have taken him at all? — would seem right now to be yes. Nick Riewoldt, who had supported Cousins' attempted recruitment at St Kilda, said two days ago that his club, with all the intelligence it had gathered, had made the right choice in the end. He was right. Cousins and his management did not handle that period well.
Richmond had the advantage of being the last man standing, but close followers of the Tigers' botched administrations over the best part of 25 years were gratified to see the then uneasy March-Wallace alliance put itself to the test and boldly choose excitement and risk ahead of safety.
The choice will continue to test them as Cousins has tested so many before. Kevin Sheedy and Andrew Demetriou may have acted as godfathers to the 30-year-old former Eagle, but their job is done. Richmond is the true parent and for the once-powerful VFL club, backing itself to handle the political football that is Ben Cousins could prove a major stepping stone back to respectability.
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