This article isn't on the web so I typed it out....
CAN CUZ STILL CUT IT?
By Rod Nicholson | Sunday Herald-Sun | 21 Dec 2008, Page S11
SHOULD Ben Cousins line up against old mate Chris Judd in the AFL season opener between Richmond and Carlton on Easter Thursday, he will not have played in a football match for 80 weeks.
That is how long it is since Cousins tore the hamstring off the bone in West Coast's 2007 qualifying final loss to Collingwood.
So while numerous questions hover around the 2005 Brownlow medallist, whose career has been stifled by drug addiction, the most crucial question, and the one that has been largely overlooked, is this: Will he have an impact as a player?
Cousins, who has played seven AFL matches in two years, will be three months shy of his 31st birthday come the first bounce of the ball, with a recent history of hamstring problems.
Leading sports medico Peter Larkins said Cousins would find it harder to return to the game at his age and with such soft-tissue concerns.
"The game has intensified in the past two years and being in the midfield, the hot spot, will affect him," Larkins said.
"He will find the pace of the game will have a fatigue factor on him like never before, and he will be shocked by the collisions which are part of the game that his body has missed for so long. And, importantly for Ben, he thrives on explosive pace - which can put soft tissue weaknesses to the test.
"The game today is far more physically demanding, especially for a 30-year-old who hasn't played for so long and who has a history of soft tissue problems (hamstring). It's a fact that older players have more soft tissue injuries, so he needs to be careful."
Cousins's veteran status and time away from top-level training - and obvious lack of match hardness - is understood to have been a major factor in Collingwood's reluctance to draft him.
The Magpies were unable to think of any running player to return to the AFL after such a lengthy absence, and at such an age.
Their first-hand experience of the repeated struggles of former captain Nathan Buckley with his hamstrings after he passed 30 was compelling.
Buckley was a player of similar athletic ability who was dedicated to fastidious preparation and rehabilitation, yet even he could not beat the odds.
As recently as August, Collingwood is understood to have received information that Cousins suffered a recurrence of the hamstring injury, which slowed his training under the tutelage of family friend Murray Couper, a former WAFL player with Perth.
Another worrying factor for Richmond is how air-travel might affect Cousins's body. Travelling every two weeks can take a toll on those with hamstring ailments.
Cousins has played 238 games in 12 seasons, and would have had two-to-four hour flights before and after about half of those matches. Many of the Eagles players have retired in their early 30s, and the club is yet to produce a 300-game player.
Both factors are often attributed to the taxing demands of constant air travel on players' bodies.
Cousins accepts the odds are stacked against him.
"I understand I'm 30 and I've had 12 months off, but in the time I've been away from the game I've put a lot of time and work into my body," he said.
"I think I can get back to somewhere near my best. The game never stops changing, it's a cut-throat industry and I'm up against it, but I'm confident I can make a healthy contribution."
Coach Terry Wallace expects to ease Cousins into full training and did not guarantee him an immediate return at AFL level.
"From a fitness aspect, we know that he has kept himself in good shape," Wallace said.
"From a football sense we have to ease him into the early part of our training regime because our guys have been up and running for a couple of months.
"Whether he starts playing with Coburg, whether he starts playing at AFL level, that will be up to Ben and how he conducts himself at our football club."
