THE West Coast Eagles appear unlikely to face AFL sanctions as a result of the Ben Cousins affair after league chief executive Andrew Demetriou praised the club for making “significant progress” and “real attempts” to address the cultural problems that had contributed to the former captain’s drug addiction.
The Eagles were hauled before the commission in April and put on notice that any further wild behaviour from the west would be met with harsh penalties by the competition’s governing body, with loss of draft picks, premiership points and monetary fines among the sanctions available to the AFL.
Demetriou said Cousins’ latest disgrace would be debated at length at the next commission meeting on November 19. But speaking from Paris, where he is due to meet an Irish delegation to determine the future of the international series, he said neither the Eagles nor the AFL’s three-strikes drug policy were to blame for the events of this week.
"I would say the West Coast Eagles football club has made significant progress in the last few months to amend the culture of the football club," Demetriou said.
"They are still a very good football club but unfortunately, they have players within their ranks who fall through the cracks.
"There isn’t a policy in the world that guarantees a 100 per cent success rate. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have any people with substance abuse problems.
"Whether Ben Cousins was on one strike, two strikes or the policy was different, I am not sure there would have been a different outcome. The fact of the matter is he is really, really ill. He has got a severe problem."
In the wake of Cousins’ arrest for possession of a prohibited substance on Tuesday, the AFL is under intense political pressure from the federal Government to tighten its illicit drugs policy, which is considered too tolerant by Prime Minister John Howard and Federal Sports Minister George Brandis. After meeting with Irish officials, Demetriou will cut short his European trip to return to Melbourne.
While Demetriou gave no ground on whether the policy would be amended, he admitted the wisdom of allowing Cousins to return to football in July, within four months of beginning his drug rehabilitation, was not a moot point.
He insisted that at the time, the medical advice was that the prospect of a return to AFL football would improve Cousins’ chances of rehabilitation. Following Cousins’ brief court appearance yesterday, Demetriou conceded that the Brownlow medallist was in no state to contemplate the resumption of his playing career.
West Coast has made it clear Cousins has played his last game for the Eagles. Any attempt by Cousins to join another club via the draft can be blocked by the commission.
"He has an option of choosing to nominate for the AFL draft but if he chose to nominate, the AFL commission has in its powers to either accept or reject a nomination," Demetriou said.
"I would say very strongly that the furthest thing from our mind, and I am sure from Ben Cousins’ family’s mind, is playing football."
Demetriou also said that irrespective of health concerns, Cousins was answerable for his history of reckless public behaviour. This includes his failure on Tuesday to submit to a police drug test after being pulled over in his 4WD.
"His failure to co-operate the other day certainly didn’t do him any favours," Demetriou said.
The West Coast hierarchy continued to defend its handling of Cousins’ addiction, with chairman-elect Mark Barnaba deflecting claims that the club would be abandoned by sponsors or the parents of teenage recruits secured in next month’s national draft as a consequence of his relapse.
In addition to sacking Cousins, the club this week reaffirmed its decision not to offer a new contract to premiership player Daniel Chick, whose car and house were searched by organised crime squad detectives as part of the same operation that led to the arrest of Cousins.
Chick has not been charged by police but club officials had become concerned at his influence on Cousins, who stayed at Chick’s house in the days surrounding the drug-related death of retired Eagles player Chris Mainwaring, a close friend of Cousins.
"There is further work to do but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t put a lot of time and effort into this," Barnaba said
"A lot of it has been behind closed doors and we think we have made real inroads. Perception can, in effect, become reality. The damage is purely in how your own peers and the public at large view all of that which encompasses the West Coast Eagles."
Barnaba also defended the club’s decision to allow Cousins to return to the senior side so quickly after his admission to substance abuse.
"The risk that West Coast took was for the benefit of Ben. What we did was put Ben’s interests first. He, through all the advice we took, was very keen to come back to football.
"At that point it was clear that that brought with it a risk but we had a duty of care to an employee," Barnaba said.
Source: foxsports.com.au
