Put Ben Cousins in the guts
Jon Ralph | December 12, 2008
IT IS isn't quite the fabled centreline of Bourke-Barrot-Clay, but to success-starved Richmond fans it may as well be.
Reigning best-and-fairest Brett Deledio on one wing, second-year gun Trent Cotchin on the other, and recruit Ben Cousins firmly planted in the guts.
Add onball revelation Nathan Foley, improving midfielder Richard Tambling and the starch of Shane Tuck and Kane Johnson and you are getting somewhere.
Finally, after two finals campaigns since 1982, Richmond may have a midfield with enough firepower to compete with the league's heavyweights.
The "Add Cousins and stir" argument has merit at any AFL club.
Which of the 16 clubs would not want a 30-year-old midfielder who runs the lines, makes the right decision every time, and has kicked more than 200 career goals?
But the Tigers have a unique combination of circumstances that must have coach Terry Wallace salivating, at least about his possible recruit's on-field potential.
Every club has a player who struggles with taggers: Nick Dal Santo at St Kilda, Marc Murphy at Carlton, Dale Thomas and Scott Pendlebury at Collingwood.
But the Tigers have a raft of emerging midfielders who have shown an inability to wear down the elite shutdown players.
When all of Foley, Deledio and Tambling play in the midfield, one invariably gets off the leash.
But too often Deledio is pushed forward in search of goals, Tambling is released to half-back to inject some run, and the load falls to Foley.
He coped admirably in 2007, but slipped to seventh in best-and-fairest voting this year.
Like Dal Santo if Cousins had waltzed into Moorabbin, Foley would be the SuperCoach buy of the year if the ex-Eagle could be lured to Tigerland.
The more worrying factor for Richmond's brains trust is how Cousins would change the leadership dynamic of the playing list.
Wallace has spent his tenure at Tigerland trying to extract leadership and spark from a group renowned as timid and insular.
He has made considerable progress, and last month unveiled a young leadership group led by Chris Newman and vice-captain Foley.
A month ago there was a concern Cousins' dominant presence would have an inhibiting effect on a group that needs to go in the other direction.
What has changed since?
The distraction factor also looms large for a club set to face the white-hot spotlight all year.
Wallace knows he must perform this year to win another contract, and a raft of questions about Cousins would be preferable to those on his own tenure.
Cotchin was so impressive in his first season he could scarcely top that performance in the eyes of supporters, but he might benefit from some cover from a returning champion.
The bottom line is that Cousins brings excitement, dynamism and flair, and those commodities have been in scant supply at Punt Rd for two decades.
And if the Cousins adventure backfires, the Tigers have nowhere further to fall.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24787808-19742,00.html
