Ben's challenge is to keep Tigers fans on side
Herald-Sun | December 23, 2008
VICTORIAN opening batsman Nick Jewell couldn't help but notice the commotion at the Punt Rd Oval last week as he headed to the MCG.
As the car park filled and security guards manned the barricades, he rang his father, Tony, to let him know that Ben Cousins hysteria had well and truly arrived at Richmond.
He also made the wry observation that a Tigers' summer training run would attract far more spectators than the Victorian cricketers, who were about to put Western Australia to the sword across the other side of Yarra Park.
Of course, Tony Jewell needs no introduction to the madness of Richmond.
He's lived and breathed it for most of his life, as a player, coach, director and supporter.
After more than 25 years of abject failure, apathy should reign at Punt Rd.
Yet few AFL clubs are able to match the emotional energy that pours from its fan base.
It can be uplifting and inspirational. It can also be divisive and destructive.
In either form, it is a force to be reckoned with.
Right now the place is on a high. The club has taken the plunge on Cousins. The supporters are delirious.
They begged the administration to give the boy one more chance and promised to dig deep into their pockets if it did.
He is seen as a natural fit in a developing midfield, although it's clear his dubious celebrity was the attraction for some fans.
The administration proudly acknowledges it listened to the collective voice of the fans.
But you sense it was a fear of what they may have done if Cousins was ignored that motivated the club to act.
Such is the volatility of Tigerland where, historically, the committee has shared the reactive mentality of the fans.
These days the board generally appears more benign and measured, yet it can still occasionally reek of instability.
Recent examples were president Gary March's public questioning of coach Terry Wallace in September and the need to reprimand director Tony Free over his review of the football department.
It leads to an obvious question about whether Richmond is a good fit for Cousins as he tries to prove he's more than a recovering drug addict who once won a Brownlow Medal.
Richmond's handling of his recruitment had all the co-ordination of a new-born giraffe.
It wobbled unsteadily in all directions, before people power won the day.
It might have been a feel-good exercise in the end, but it exposed again the inherent weaknesses in the club.
It is not the way it would have been done at, say,
Geelong or Essendon, where the boards generally function with detachment and certainty and avoid the perception of
disarray and disunity emanating from Punt Rd last week.
Indeed, there are other clubs more likely to offer the cohesive, stable environment that Cousins needs right now. But, as we know, none were interested.
The media concentration on his recovery program, taking in everything from his drug-testing regime to his after-dark associates, will be extreme.
I sense Richmond is going to be mightily challenged by the demands this will create.
The greatest pressure, though, will come from a fan base now living and breathing the great Cousins comeback, and inadvertently creating unrealistic expectations.
Experience tells us that those supporters who have embraced him so warmly in December could be baying for his blood by mid-July.
If nothing else, it's another incentive for Cousins to make the most of his last chance.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24835012-11088,00.html
