Cuz appears to have some good influences in his life now 
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Woman who saved Ben Cousins' career
By Jackie Epstein | December 21, 2008
AT 8.45pm last Monday, Carlie Merenda received a call. She was told Richmond president Gary March was after a mobile number for Ben Cousins so he could deliver the good news.
Not long after her phone rang again. "We got over the line,'' a relieved Cousins told her from Perth. Merenda shed a tear.
She had worked behind the scenes at the Flying Start player management agency to get Cousins back in the AFL.
Her boss Ricky Nixon, who manages many of the code's best players, was also emotional.
Merenda, in particular, shared the journey with Cousins - through the lows of his drug addictions, to the hope that he would come out the other side and play the game he loves.
Merenda is rarely heard or seen, bar the occasional glimpse of her whisking Cousins away from an airport. But she has ridden shotgun with the former Eagles superstar over every bump and hurdle for 18 months.
From the first time Cousins ventured to a Malibu rehab centre in April 2007, Merenda has maintained daily contact with the recovering drug addict.
"I would have spoken to him every day,'' Merenda said.
"You've heard stuff about him and how his phone might be off, but there's not one day over the past 12 months that I haven't spoken to him. And people like that, if they're trying to get away, they'll turn their phones off.
"No doubt Ben's had some testing times, but the work he's put into his recovery has been amazing and a credit to him. The first six months he was given no direction. He got banned and then we wrote to the AFL in May to say, 'what do we need to do here to satisfy you?' Then in the past two months we got this, this and this (criteria).
"There wasn't any room to move when he was being tested and being flown over for meetings with doctors.
"You've got to think on the positive side how well he's done in the past 12 months. He has dealt with a lot of things, he went away to rehab and came back for seven months and then Mainy (former Eagles team-mate Chris Mainwaring) died and there was a relapse then, but that's a hard thing. He was his close mate, best mate, and then another close mate died (convicted drug trafficker John Anthony Giannarelli), so he has had things going on.''
Merenda grew up in Perth and is the sister of Mark Merenda, who played for Richmond and West Coast. She admits the rumours about Cousins had filtered through for a while before he finally confessed his addiction.
She said they built a trust that developed into a friendship and a healthy professional relationship. While Nixon heads up Flying Start, it is Merenda who has effectively been assigned full-time to the Cousins case.
"I don't care to be the spokesperson for him, Ricky can do that,'' Merenda, 28, said.
"At times Ricky's been so passionate about it all and I think it's a positive that he has been. Some people have been very critical, but everyone's got to remember this has never happened before.
"We've never been through this before where a player has come out and said he's a drug addict and been suspended for bringing the game into disrepute and then got 12 months to go away and sort it out.
"I'm sure in hindsight we may have done things differently along the way, but I think we've done a pretty good job the whole way through. People have been critical of Ben, too, and that whole perceived arrogance, but tell me who deals with drug addiction and rehabilitation in the spotlight? It's very hard.''
She said Cousins had been determined to earn a second chance ever since his issues were exposed. Football has been the carrot, the reason behind his efforts and a catalyst for deciding to make a documentary about his experience. He knows he is in a position to educate and inform.
"To keep busy and have focus and purpose is why he did that,'' Merenda said. "(The documentary) started just when he got back from America.''
Merenda paid tribute to the support from Cousins' family - father Bryan, mother Stephanie and sisters Sophie and Mel. She said being rejected by St Kilda was the turning point for Cousins, the time he realised his chance was slipping away.
"Definitely the last few weeks have been the hardest. But also the best, because it was amazing how life can change with just one phone call,'' she said. "Ben's dad, mum and sister were so happy the excitement was amazing.
"You could have gone either way with Ben. Jumped off him and said, 'I don't want to have anything to do with you', or you could throw yourself right in there and that's what I did. You can't leave someone when they need you most. He lost a lot of support, but he caused that himself in a way by doing the things he did.
"He now will be able to give so much more than he has previously. At a club, he can help the young kids coming through and I think it's the best thing for him getting back in that environment.
"I think he's learned a lot about himself in the past 12 months, more than he could ever learn. He's got to help himself as well because he is a recovering addict.''
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24828531-5001023,00.html
