Soccer threatens Cousins sell-out
Greg Denham | February 03, 2009 | The Australian
THE A-League finals series threatens to scuttle any chance of Ben Cousins playing first-up for Richmond against his former club West Coast, in front of a potential sell-out crowd in Melbourne.
Tigers coach Terry Wallace revealed yesterday that Cousins is almost certain to play in the NAB Cup second round, despite club reports that he was not as advanced in his preparation as most of his new teammates.
The A-League will take priority over the AFL's pre-season NAB Cup competition and force at least one match away from Melbourne's Telstra Dome.
Melbourne Victory, which is engaged in semi-finals against Adelaide United over the next two Saturdays, will force the AFL to reschedule games on either February 21 or the following Saturday.
Should Melbourne lose its series to Adelaide, it will host an A-League preliminary final at Telstra Dome on February 21, the date the AFL has also scheduled in a first-round NAB Cup fixture between Geelong and the Crows.
If Melbourne beats Adelaide, it will automatically qualify for the A-League grand final at Telstra Dome on February 28, where the AFL has potentially programmed a round-two NAB Cup clash between the winners of Collingwood and West Coast, and Richmond against Fremantle.
Should Melbourne Victory host the A-League grand final, and AFL results fall a certain way, any plans of Richmond has of unveiling recruit Cousins against the Eagles will be dashed.
For the Cousins-West Coast clash to become reality, West Coast needs to beat Collingwood at Subiaco Oval on Saturday and Richmond must defeat Fremantle, also in Perth, on Sunday week.
Instead of having the chance to play first-up in front of up to 45,000 predominantly Richmond fans in Melbourne, the former Eagles captain may have to face a hostile Perth crowd, one that had previously adored him.
Cousins has not played for the Eagles since breaking down in a semi-final against Port Adelaide in 2007, in his 238th game. He played only seven matches that year due to a 13-game club suspension and injuries.
He continues to fight a drug addiction and missed the entire 2008 season after being disqualified by the AFL for bringing the game into disrepute. That ban was subsequently lifted and he was drafted by Richmond in December, well after the pre-season fixture was released.
Should Melbourne Victory miss the grand final, the AFL will decide a week out whether to stage the possibility of a Richmond-West Coast game in Perth, or at Telstra Dome.
The league yesterday said it would be more profitable to play it at Subiaco Oval, based on a similar attendance figure.
In Perth the AFL pays a lower ground rental than at Telstra Dome and has better stadium rights. It has less access to revenue streams at Telstra Dome.
But if the game is scheduled for Subiaco Oval, it would mean that the Tigers would have to travel to Western Australia for consecutive matches, while the Eagles would have the benefit of being the home side in the first two rounds of the NAB Cup.
Should the Cats-Crows match have to be relocated, it seems certain that it will have to be played at AAMI Stadium in Adelaide as Geelong's Skilled Stadium is already booked.
This year's NAB Cup series carries the same total prizemoney ($620,000) as in recent years, but the grand finalists will receive much less than in recent seasons.
The winning club will earn $180,000, a long way short of the $385,000 won by St Kilda last year. Runners-up will receive $120,000, down from $176,000 in 2008.
To help cover club costs, the AFL decided to award a more even spread across the board with first-round winners earning $40,000, increasing to $80,000 for winners in the second round.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24999352-5012432,00.html
