Tigers' den not black and white
Cheryl Critchley | December 12, 2008
YOUR best mate is a hopeless drunk. She gets sozzled at every social event, tries to crack on to your husband and vomits inside your car.
Do you give her a wide berth? Not if you know that deep down that she's a good person.
If you had compassion and saw that she was addicted to the demon drink, you'd stand by her.
A true friend would try to nurse a mate through it and encourage them to stay off the grog. Just as they would help if it was a mental illness.
For that reason I think former West Coast AFL star Ben Cousins should be given another chance, which I decided before it was revealed that my club might draft him.
Yes he's an arrogant so-and-so, who doesn't appear to have fully admitted the extent of his substance abuse problem even to himself.
He has also handled himself badly, showing little remorse and shaving his whole body before a drug test requiring a certain hair length.
That cocky swagger has done nothing for his cause.
But these are the actions of someone who had - and hopefully doesn't still have - a serious illness.
Some say "stuff them" if an addict messes up once too often, and washes their hands of them.
Why should an employer hire someone who might not turn up to work, or arrive with their eyes spinning?
And why should a landlord keep a tenant who crashes and bashes their way into a unit five times a week, waking all the neighbours?
They have a point.
But life is not black and white, and we sometimes have to help those who can't help themselves.
It's so easy to trot out the "not in my back yard" line: "Yeah give him another go, but not at my club". That would be a cop-out.
Drug and alcohol addiction are illnesses that control people's lives and make them do things they wouldn't otherwise.
I've seen it happen, and it's sad.
It is difficult to break the cycle, but it can be done. Just as alcoholics can relapse repeatedly before staying sober, it is a long road for a drug addict.
Drafting Cousins, at his best one of footy's finest players, is a huge risk. Several other clubs have already decided it is too big a gamble.
At the very least the Tigers would have to level with him from day one and make the club's expectations clear.
To back that up, it would need a support system to pre-empt relapses.
Like any addict, you can't expect Cousins to go it alone. Especially in the rarified AFL world where players are treated as gods and have easy access to substances legal and illegal.
Given his behaviour it is easy to single out Cousins, but he's hardly alone in taking drugs.
Anyone who knows anything about footy knows about past and current players indulging.
Whatever happens it is becoming harder to explain all this to our kids, who idolise AFL stars.
I've already told mine, aged five to nine, that footy players are not always the best people to look up to.
But like it or not, they are role models and clubs must do all they can to keep them in line.
It is not good enough to turn a blind eye. What happened to Cousins should have been nipped in the bud but was allowed to fester for years.
As for Richmond coach Terry Wallace, it appears he's going for broke.
Wallace is in the last year of a five-year contract. Cousins could be his trump card.
What a coup it would be to see his star recruit steer the Tigers into their third finals series in 27 years.
If it all blows up in his face Wallace might also end up going out in a hail of bullets.
There's never a dull moment at Richmond.
Cheryl Critchley is a Richmond member, and her husband and three children are also members.http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24786617-5000117,00.html
