Cousins faces heavy fine for 'salute'
Samantha Lane | June 2, 2009
SHOULD Ben Cousins offer the AFL today the same breezy explanation for his pre-match one-finger salute that he did to the public yesterday he can expect a fine of $5000 — possibly more.
The league's head of football operations, Adrian Anderson, has given Cousins until this afternoon to provide an account for his actions on Saturday night in Perth where, in the changerooms before a match, Cousins raised a middle finger at a television camera.
Anderson will review Cousins' response before determining a sanction, possibly by late today. AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has already made it clear, however, that he was disgusted by Cousins' rebellious display, branding it "totally unnecessary" and "unwarranted".
Anderson will use the league's fining of former Eagle Michael Braun in 2007 as a reference point in the Cousins case. Braun swore in a post-match interview that was broadcast on national television and after the club proposed to fine him $500 the AFL multiplied the sanction by 10.
That sum was considered to be on the lenient side by the AFL, that factored in Braun's clean record, which would suggest Cousins — suspended for the 2008 season for bringing the game into disrepute through his drug use — could be in line for a greater penalty.
Speaking at a medal presentation after he had been voted best on ground early in the 2007 season Braun said: "Thanks to all the fans for sticking by us through the tough times. Now let's have a great f ---ing year."
Richmond does not intend to fine Cousins and issued a short statement on Sunday night that quoted him as saying: "It was never my intention to cause any offence. However, I appreciate that my actions could have caused offence to some people, and for that I apologise."
However on his regular radio appearance yesterday, Cousins showed minimal remorse. He said the footage, which he said he saw for the first time before yesterday's radio interview, was "quite humorous".
"What did it make me think?" he said. "I thought it was still quite humorous, but I guess I'm somebody that doesn't find that offensive.
"Now if there's people out there that do, I apologise … it wasn't meant to do that in any way," Cousins said.
To the suggestion that his action was a bad example to children, Cousins laughingly replied: "You'd like to think parents would have steered their children away from me a long time ago."
Cousins said he thought a friend was working in Network Ten's editing van at Subiaco on Saturday night and that he hoped that friend might have seen his gesture and found it amusing.
"… (he) was freelancing that particular day, he's a mate of mine who worked on the documentary. I thought, on the off chance he may have been sitting in the van, it might have got a bit of a giggle about it," Cousins said.
Channel Ten was yesterday unaware of who Cousins was talking about and the network's head of AFL coverage, David Barham, stood by his decision to air the footage.
In a newspaper column yesterday, Cousins urged people not to be too precious about something he estimated he had done about half a dozen times over his career as a means of joking with staff in the TV broadcast vans who were monitoring the cameras.
The matter is being handled by the AFL's football operations department rather than the match review panel because, like the Braun case, it relates to an incident that occurred out of play.
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/cousins-faces-heavy-fine/2009/06/01/1243708401229.html
