not a pretty story.....

[stinger]

....but one detailed here over the past couple of seasons by st kilda's wa supporters...


...anyone contemplating bringing cousins to moorabbin has rocks in their head........


"How drugs poisoned the Eagles

Robert Wainwright and David Humphries | October 20, 2007

CHRIS Mainwaring was sitting quietly on the banks of Fremantle Oval, watching an autumn evening training session of rival club the Dockers, when he revealed his dark secret.

Despite a successful new career in the television commentator's box, the life of the West Coast legend was on the brink of collapse, personal problems compounded by the fear of financial ruin and worries about a friend. When a colleague inquired innocently, the story just slipped out.

Mainwaring cast back 12 years to his 30th birthday when, instead of reflecting on achievements, he was trying to exorcise the demons threatening to destroy his future.

Concerned that a drug habit was spinning out of control, the dual premiership player refused to invite the people feeding his growing habit to a private party. It was a signal that he wanted to break away.

But when Mainwaring and his guests turned up to a city nightclub, the "gangsters" were there, lined up in a guard of honour and demanding to know why they hadn't been invited.

"When you become their mate, it's until they decide it's over," he recounted sadly, insisting he had freed himself eventually.

The story was a confession of sorts, not only about his own life, but to explain the fears he held for the modern-day champion Ben Cousins, who had returned a few days earlier from a month's rehabilitation in California after falling to the same demons.

Five months later, Mainwaring is dead, killed by a cocktail of drugs including cocaine, ecstasy, cannabis, Roaccutane, anti-depressants and alcohol, and Cousins has been sacked and faces an uncertain future.

Many in Australia's most controversial sporting club would deny Mainwaring took anything worse than marijuana and too much alcohol during his career.

But others say those denials are why the club is engulfed in such crisis, and insist the problems run deeper into the senior playing list than Cousins and teammate Daniel Chick; the latter caught up in this week's arrest, released without charge but delisted by the club.

Sources close to the club this week recounted watching players smoke marijuana in nightclubs and admissions by players to using ecstasy during the off-season because it was easy to evade lax testing procedures. A former player told The Age he was told to "Shut your f---ing mouth" when he complained about the problem.

There is evidence of infiltration by criminals, including drug dealers and the Coffin Cheaters bikie gang, accounts of a player "flatlining" in Las Vegas after a drug overdose, claims of cover-ups and betrayal, behind-the-scenes beratings and many accounts of bitter dressing-room exchanges and public punch-ups between "the druggies" and non-users.

Drug-takers are claimed to have bragged about encouraging others into their groups.

But in front of the cameras, senior administrators have fought tooth and nail to downplay the problem. Some deny it still.

Coach and former champion John Worsfold says eight players have told him they had tried drugs, but others say the figure is much higher and the public is owed an independent investigation. Long-serving administrators such as chief executive Trevor Nisbett are singled out as having failed to tackle the problem earlier.

The Age has been given the names of several prominent players so far untouched publicly by the drama who are battling their own drug problems. The names have been confirmed by several sources.

When asked to list the players, one insider replied: "It's easier to name the players who haven't at least dabbled. The one saving grace is that the outing of Ben Cousins may have saved them from the same fate."

The story of Cousins and the Eagles is one of power, privilege and victory. Conversely, it is also one of secrecy, denial and ultimately self-destruction.

From the moment it was created in 1987, the club was different. It did not have members but investors, owned by a publicly listed company to raise the multimillion-dollar fee for its entry into Victoria's big league.

The interloper had an entire city — Perth — as its fan base. The result was a Hollywood-like fishbowl in which players were feted and adored by a state that wore its geographical isolation as a badge.

Success followed quickly, with two premierships in its first eight seasons and a string of 10 successive years in the finals under coach Mick Malthouse. Not even the creation of a second club, the Dockers, could significantly alter the dominance of the Eagles.

Then the wheels fell off in a tussle over control and direction of the club between the private owners and the local football commission.

The club's chief executive, Brian Cook, resigned, as did the club president, prominent hotelier Murray McHenry. Then Malthouse left and suddenly the club was adrift, its players, coaching staff and administration in disarray.

The club wandered in the football wilderness for the next two seasons, finishing 13th and 14th under new coach Ken Judge, who fought a debilitating injury list and a poor player roster.

A few weeks after the end of his first season, Judge received a telephone call, understood to be from a police officer, warning him that two players— the emerging champion Cousins and ruckman Michael Gardiner — had been caught on a police telephone tap arranging to buy drugs.

Judge immediately told the club. The two players were confronted and denied the claim. The next season, Cousins was made captain and Gardiner vice-captain. Judge was sacked.

The decision was the turning point and had far-reaching repercussions, say several insiders, who say it turned Cousins, already a young man who believed himself to be invincible, into a leader who believed he was godlike and untouchable.

It also gave a green light to other impressionable young men at the club. "Ben was handsome, he was the best player and he was the coolest man in the club. Others were bound to follow him. It was inevitable," an insider said.

Judge will not comment but others, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say drug problems already existed when he arrived. Some senior players openly smoked marijuana, and a minority, such as Mainwaring, experimented with cocaine. Nightclubbing and boozing was common.

Nisbett has acknowledged there was drug use as far back as the early 1990s, albeit minor, that the club tried to monitor. But others say he and board members failed to tackle what would soon become a runaway problem. "Maybe the explanation is that they simply didn't understand the drug world," one offered.

Club fortunes turned with Judge's demise, albeit slowly. Under Worsfold, the team made the finals in 2002 but it would take three years to become a real force again. Meanwhile, the drug culture took hold behind the scenes in a far more serious way.

In 2001, players were caught in drug squad operations during which they used code words, such as "ironing", to order drugs from a convicted dealer. In 2002, police tapes emerged of two Eagles players (Cousins and Gardiner) linking them with crime figures associated with the Melbourne gang scene. An internal club investigation cleared the players.

McHenry acknowledges Cousins has played his last game. "I really like the kid," he said.

"When he's doing what he does best, he feels invincible."

Said another Eagles insider: "That's the nature of drug addicts. They lie and cheat."

[stinger]

more of the same...
'
Early warning of an Eagle's fall


Paige Taylor | October 20, 2007

BEN Cousins was a bright-eyed 23-year-old in 2001 when his then coach at the West Coast Eagles, Ken Judge, received a tip from a Perth detective that the midfielder and two prominent teammates were likely to be using illicit drugs.

Judge told the club's administrators and waited for the fallout. But there wasn't any, despite reports the same year that some Eagles players had been caught on secretly recorded police tapes arranging to pick up "the ironing" from drug dealer Robert William Morris.

Those players were suspected by police of being among thousands of small-time, recreational drug users across Perth and were never named publicly or charged with any offence.

Morris was a different matter; he was sentenced in 2002 to six years' jail after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to sell and supply, possessing amphetamines with intent to sell or supply and manufacturing a prohibited drug.

After Judge raised the alarm, the club conducted an internal investigation which bordered on farce; not surprisingly, it found nothing and did not include an interview with Judge himself who had since been sacked over the team's dismal 2002 season.

Cousins, by then captain, continued his match-winning brilliance and the club continued to turn a blind eye to the champion midfielder's partying ways.

But West Coast's critics say that period was a wasted opportunity to help Cousins avoid the wrong path and stamp out what was clearly an emerging drug problem within the club.

And worse, Cousins came to believe that his glorious on-field performances -- which culminated in his 2005 Brownlow medal -- could temper mistakes and poor decisions he made off the field.

By July last year, Cousins' obsessive dedication to training was on the wane. This February -- three months into pre-season preparation -- Cousins had missed training sessions or shown up unfit to train. He was clearly going off the rails.

While being mentored by former West Coast champion and party boy Chris Mainwaring, Cousins was summoned to a meeting with club administrators and coach John Worsfold.

When asked to explain his actions, Cousins defiantly shot back, asking why the club cared what he did off the field if he was such a good player on it.

But it was a speech that Worsfold recognised, almost word-for-word, as one that Mainwaring had made to his captain Mick Malthouse years earlier when he was being chastised for heavy drinking and late nights.

Worsfold, who had been a teetotaller captain, was unimpressed with Cousins for his attitude and with Mainwaring for apparently planting those words in the wayward players' mind.

Eight months later, Cousins's career is in tatters and Mainwaring is dead from a suspected cocktail of drugs believed to have included cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis. Cousins was with Mainwaring just hours before he died on October1, and has been the subject of intense scrutiny since.

Detectives have questioned Cousins about the last few hours of his mate's life.

Perth businessman John Kizon, whose Melbourne underworld connections caused problems for Cousins when the pair were seen socialising in 2002, believes Cousins was this week the victim of a vendetta.

"I know the streets, let's not kid ourselves, and the word on the street is that they had been monitoring him," Kizon said.

"Nobody gets pulled over by the Organised Crime Squad for a driver's licence check."

Kizon claimed his contact with Cousins has been minimal but that others have tried to make out the pair are great friends "to put pressure on the football club and pressure on him (Cousins)".

"Whatever he's done, wrong or right, he's a guy who's a beautiful person," he said.

Cousins' supporters on talkback radio this week have claimed he was picked on, but few players have been unlucky enough to have been dogged by so much trouble for so long.

In September 2002, he punched teammate Daniel Kerr in the face while at the Eagles' best and fairest celebrations.

In a separate incident later that night, Cousins broke his arm falling down stairs at a nightclub.

In May 2005, Cousins and teammate Michael Gardiner angered the club when they refused to tell police what they knew about a shooting at a Perth nightclub involving Coffin Cheater Troy Mercanti, a prominent member of WA's notorious outlaw motorcycle gang.

In February last year, Cousins was on his way home from a friend's wedding when he pulled up less than 50m from a booze bus in the Perth suburb of Applecross and ran away. The next day, he told traffic police that he bolted because he needed to go to the toilet.

The unedifying court spectacle cost Cousins $900 and the captaincy. He admitted then to "errors of judgment".

Within a year, Cousins' "substance abuse" was revealed and he was apologising to his fans for disappointing them. But the 29-year-old was keen to display his resilience mid-season when he lifted his shirt to display a large tattoo proclaiming "Such is Life".

It is the phrase Cousins used to journalists when his return to football was postponed by injury, and it is perhaps best known as the last words of the outlaw idolised by bikies, Ned Kelly.

Subiaco tattooist Mike E said Cousins chose the phrase himself and asked him to design lettering that was a hybrid of "old English and tribal".

"He was really happy with it and so was I," Mr E told The Weekend Australian. Mr E said he had no idea why Cousins chose the phrase, or whether it was inspired by the 1903 Australian novel of the same name.

Tom Collins' classic explores whether people's lives are determined by their choices or by circumstances beyond their control. The last words read: "Such is life, my fellow-mummers just like a poor player that bluffs and feints his hour upon the stage, and then cheapens down to mere nonentity."

[Riewoldting]

McHenry acknowledges Cousins has played his last game. "I really like the kid," he said.

"When he's doing what he does best, he feels invincible."

Nice work by the journalists to give away Murray McHenry as the "anonymous insider".

Halfwits.

[westy]

I only hope that the locals read these news articles . Maybe then they will understand what has been common knowledge for years. Well, to others that don't have blinkered view of their beloved weagles. I tend to have little more respect for the dockers as each interesting day unfolds here in the sunny West. Thank God I have the Mighty Saints I do, however find it staggering that a filthy dog like Kizon could anything of note to say, considering what his real position is in society in Perth and even Melbourne for that matter

[stinger]

McHenry acknowledges Cousins has played his last game. "I really like the kid," he said.

"When he's doing what he does best, he feels invincible."

Nice work by the journalists to give away Murray McHenry as the "anonymous insider".

Halfwits.

yeah...saw that....

[westy]

Geeze, I must be pretty fired-up! Sorry about all the grammatical mistakes. Hopefully you know what I mean.

[stinger]

Geeze, I must be pretty fired-up! Sorry about all the grammatical mistakes. Hopefully you know what I mean.

i agree with you anyway...

this article is interesting also...and shows that there is a mood for change....

"Say no to footballers
20 October 2007 Herald Sun
Garry Linnell

NO ONE really wanted to listen to the bitter accusations of a betrayed wife.

Ben Cousins
Fallen footballing great Ben Cousins. Picture: Michael Klein
Not then, anyway. But maybe if we had, the stench that now surrounds Australian football and its ongoing drug and alcohol scandals might not be so powerful.

So Ben Cousins has had his drug charge dropped, but is still likely to return to a Californian rehab clinic. Andrew Johns is trying to piece his life together after a decade of running from the truth.

And the former West Coast Eagles champion Chris Mainwaring? He stopped running from his demons a fortnight ago. Beat them to the punch with a lethal cocktail of drugs.

Now everyone's running to find a scapegoat. Don't bother.

The answer to why the image of professional football is in such a mess was laid out clearly in a home in Wagga Wagga five years ago by a young woman who had seen it coming for a long time.

Ricky Nixon is a former AFL player turned agent who, during the 1990s, secured some of the biggest names in the game as his clients. Gary Ablett, the freakish and enigmatic Geelong star they dubbed God, was one. Wayne Carey, the Kangaroos champion and the man everyone called The King, was another.

In 2002 Carey's career and marriage began to splinter when his affair with the wife of his vice-captain was uncovered. Carey's wife Sally suffered an emotional collapse before returning to her home town in southern NSW.

A few days later Nixon showed just how critical the role of a player manager had become. Contracts -- both professional and marital -- were now his province.

He travelled to Wagga to see if Sally was willing to reconcile.

Sally Carey had endured the shock and nationwide blitzkrieg of publicity. Now she was angry. She turned on Nixon.

"You're to blame for this," she told Nixon. "You're to blame, the club's to blame, I'm to blame, we're all at fault.

"We never said no to him. We let him think he could get away with everything."

Sally Carey's words stayed with Nixon. Pity no one else was listening.

"The two biggest players I've dealt with have been called God and The King," Nixon would say later.

"That's a reflection of how we regarded them. We validated them above the rest. And because of that they were both headed for a fall."

By the time Carey's cheating was exposed, Ablett had fallen further than any other national sporting figure. A drug and alcohol-fuelled binge in 2000 culminated in the death of a 20-year-old girl who idolised him in his playing days.

Back then such an incident was a rarity. Now our sports pages are written by court reporters. And it's not as if we weren't warned.

"Some players coming through have no understanding of their responsibility," said another agent, Craig Kelly, just after Ablett's descent.

"They're self-centred. There's a certain arrogance to some of the younger guys coming through," Kelly said.

The AFL and NRL are now reaping what was sowed a long time ago.

Drugs are not the sole problem -- and they certainly weren't for Carey.

They just happen to be a by-product of a culture that has developed during the past decade where young men blessed with unique ball-handling skills have been pampered and cosseted and given what they want, a culture where no one says no.

It starts early -- a young kid in his early teens becomes invaluable to his side's fortunes. He's soon given the run of the club, told how good he is by players' agents and a never ending queue of supporters and fans.

By the time he graduates into the big league, the die is cast. One afternoon at the peak of his prowess, Ablett walked into Geelong's administration office looking perplexed. The power to his home had been cut off.

"Have you paid your bills?" he was asked. Ablett shrugged and said he didn't know how to. After that the club took responsibility for handling almost every daily detail the rest of us have to cope with.

Even this week, as Cousins sauntered into court dressed as if he was just heading out for another night on the town, a group of Eagles fans outside shouted support for him.

Yes, West Coast has ignored a growing culture of irresponsibility among its players. And the AFL has been complicit with a soft drugs policy and an arms-length approach to the festering sore the Eagles have become.

Maybe it's too late for Ben Cousins, at least when it comes to salvaging his football career. And it's way too late for Chris Mainwaring.

But maybe it's not too late for football of any code.

Sally Carey told us five years ago. We have to learn to say no.

[kp83]

"Whatever he's done, wrong or right, he's a guy who's a beautiful person," he said.

This comment makes me so angry!!! Why would anyone want to change when you keep getting such positive reinforcement from your "friends"? It's these people who fuel habits and prevent the users from getting clean. I bet he's making a great living getting a cut from the distribution of these drugs though, so why wouldn't he encourage it? Absolute FILTHY SCUMBAG!!!

[meher baba]

Mr E told The Weekend Australian. Mr E said he had no idea why Cousins chose the phrase, or whether it was inspired by the 1903 Australian novel of the same name.

Tom Collins' classic explores whether people's lives are determined by their choices or by circumstances beyond their control. The last words read: "Such is life, my fellow-mummers just like a poor player that bluffs and feints his hour upon the stage, and then cheapens down to mere nonentity."

Yes, "Such is Life" is the name of a novel (by Joseph Furphy: Tom Collins is the name of the main character).

But surely much more to the point is the fact that "Such is life" was (allegedly) the last words of one Ned Kelly before he was hanged. While it is conceivable that Mr Cousins is an avid afficianado of the leading works of the Australian literary canon, I would hazard a guess that the guy who wore a tin can on his head is more likely to have been the inspiration for the tattoo than Mr Furphy's novel.

Obviously the novel up first in Google when the journo typed the words "Such is Life" into the search box.

Ah, the pitfalls of lazy journalism!!

[cowboy18]

Obviously the novel up first in Google when the journo typed the words "Such is Life" into the search box.

Ah, the pitfalls of lazy journalism!!

On the upside at least they didn't illustrate the piece with the second image that comes up when you search with google images.