The Eagles were perfectly entitled to suspend Cousins and any other player who drinks to excess.

Many of these players are payed large sums of money top run around chasing a ball and if they seize the samll bag of air they are then charged with the task of delivering it with some accuracy to a colleague or between pieces of wood signalling an effort that results in a score - in order to do that they have agreed ( in return for money ) to maintain a level of fitness and cognition that maximises their efficiency

- in the even they behave in a manner that comprises that by getting "whacked off their scones" their employer has the right to discipline them.

It is a matter of employment law more than moralising

Its funny how people need someone or something to worship. Just look at Shane Warne. He is considered a hero in many circles despite his cheating on his family. You have earth worshippers who are happy to be violent in order to bring peace. You have scientist who will happily go along with flawed theories because they don't want to question the 'Masters'. You have Allah worshippers, Buddha worshippers, body worshippers, movie star worshippers. We just can't escape being religous. Thankfully those who worship the Lord Jesus Christ worship Someone who is incorruptible. All others fail miserably in comparison.

Thank you Mirko. I'm always pleased to read something which brings about a change in my perspective, and this piece certainly has given me a new slant on the issue. Sometimes all it takes is a little nudge to get one thinking, and then you come out of the process with a changed mind.

As you say if he does - and does well - what he is paid to do, then he should continue to be paid to do it. There are plenty of other functional alcoholics out their being paid to be doctors, plumbers, lawyers and journalists. Until the sanctimonious among us stop going to footy matches because of the off-field behavious of players then there should be no problem with sponsors either.

"Its funny how people need someone or something to worship"

Yeah runner, it is. Wouldn't it be nicer if people didn't?

--

I'd agree wholeheartedly with the content of the article, though I see pericles's point.
Though from what I can tell, Cousins has performed reasonably well in terms of his on-field abilities.(I'm not sure of this, if I'm wrong, I stand corrected).

If indeed, he is playing below par then the club has the right to sack him for those reasons. If not, then I'd say it's up to the courts to decide punishment, rather than the club.

To be honest, I couldn't care less about Ben Cousins or any of this furore. I agree with the sentiment that there's much better things people can appreciate than the ability to boot a ball.

Cousins is not accused of drinking to excess, he is accused of using illegal drugs. What triggered his suspension from the Eagles was his failure to attend training when required. For a footballer, training is an essential requirement of the contract so suspension is fully justified. Cousins attendance at training has apparently been irregular for some time so it is not as though this was his first offence.
It would seem from what we know he has not been using "performance enhancing drugs" such as steroids which would definitely lead to his long term suspension. But I wonder if he has been using drugs such as cocaine, whether there is a connection to his reknowned capacity to keep running all day throughout a game.
I am not anti-drug use and sympathise with those who feel the need to use drugs. The war on drugs is a complete farce. Prohibition has never worked and just rewards the suppliers. Allowing access to drugs through a controlled and regulated supply process would take out the criminal element in the drug business.

TRTL,
Thanks to you too. I was sorely tempted to make some comment about runner's inability to stay on topic. However I suppose that when you have an omniscient, omnipresent deity he is always relevant and may be introduced at will at any time and in any thread.

"AFL footballers have no less right to drink to excess and over-react to relationship breakups than doctors, judges, plumbers and journalists, none of whom lose their livelihoods as a result of their excesses. And detecting the use of (non-performance enhancing) illegal drugs is a police matter, not the role of an overbearing employer. That’s why the Eagles suspsension of star player Ben Cousins is misguided."

Bam. First paragraph. Open and shut case - it really is that simple. Great article (I assume, based on that paragraph).

Except I don't really mind Cousins being gone - anything to help the Dockers continue to wallop the Eagles this season.

Carn the Dockers.

Morality surely is not the question, it's image, the image refers image of a club group game etc. I agree codes be vigilent about any performance enhancing drugs, alcohol has never made me better at anything, maybe I'm out of it now?

The right of a club to sack a performer for whatever reason only makes him available to another club, if he's as good as people are saying. I'm a soccer fan anyway, a man laying in a gutter is not good publicity for any endeavour. He's wasting his opportunity, which at best lasts ten years. He'd be better waiting till opportunity has gone, then he can drink himself to death, he'll always be a good bloke then.
fluff

If we all have to have this unhealthy obsession with "stars" and their rather vacuous lives and we live ours vicariously through them, they should realise that it is the public that pays their obscene salaries. Therefore they have a personal responsibility and obligation to behave in a manner befitting their position in the public eye. Surely that is fair ?

I agree with Snake. He and his ilk are setting a very poor example which a lot of very impressionable youth will follow. Even without drugs, there is far too much alcohol consumed by most players and so called "sportsmen" in our community.

As an old bush sportsman, playing most sports in between planting and gathering, even allowed to join the local rifle club at 16 and allowed to possess his own 303, finishing up as a marksman in the military.

Nothing really to skite about though, mostly glad to mix it with mates of the same mind.

Also boozed a bit in the military, and sadly even watched commmissioned officers go downhill through booze, never to recover.

Was taught as young to keep an eye on one self however, never to reach home drunk.

Over the long years, such has happened a couple of times, but let it be a lesson to watch oneself next time by missing more than a round or two and still enjoying the company.

It seems that Benny Boy Cousins never learned such lessons, and one wonders whether there is something in his makeup that kids like him with so much talent to lose, will still let themselves descend into a nether world in which there is only a sorry sad finale.

Unfortunately, our youngest son is like it and now being looked after in a home.

Even if we have mind to pray, may it it be not so much for the foolish ones who have ruined their lives.

But pray that those who do want to mix and drink, always know that they also have a persona that is watching and caring. Everybody has one, meaning that it is waiting there if we want to use it.

Of course footballers have a much bigger public profile than doctors, judges, plumbers and journalists. They are the subject of emulation and in some cases hero-worship in some parts of the community. It'd be nice if there was no need to rebuke anyone for their misdemeanours. However, society needs to start somewhere or else the bad behaviour will spread like a cancer. Sorry Mirko, but footie players are a good place to start.

Mirko, you and some of your friends in your ivory towers should get out into the community, especially the magistrates courts and have a look at the effects that drugs and alcohol are having on the lives of particularly the less well off members of our community. If these young gods who so many of the young worship, set a better example, a lot of this sh1t would not be happening.

Mirko, a good article. I think your argument is convincing. But why is it that, though you have convinced me, my gut screams that there is something more than moral reasoning involved in this case?

Where does the big money come from? From sponsors who buy TV slots to get their products associated with sporting prowess. If the public begins to frown moralistically upon a particular player or sport the image-building associations backfire on the products. So the AFL has to come down hard on behaviour that will threaten the income stream.

So disqualifying this young player is good business rather than immorality. But of course, as you point out, that is because the general public inappropriately disparages the behaviour - which is not directly related to the sporting skill. But if we the public had better discernment then perhaps the whole edifice of advertising using idols would collapse, and would that be a bad thing?

Fencepost

Both the WA football clubs are artifices. they did not begin as clubs such as South Melbourne or Footscray for example as the game for the working class youngsters. These teams are the plaything of the denizens of the leafy western suburbs of Perth.Now how could these folk stand for the audacity of Ben Cousins snorting cocaine and doing a runner on the cops.These ae the same folk who will use Brian Burke and Co to do their dirty work for them.They would like to build a super stadium seating 60,000 bums which other denizens of those leafy suburbs are opposing. How could they let scumbags like Ben Cousins besmirch their pristine Arcadia.

VK3AUU - and others - I implore you to not use again the term ivory towers - I have never seen on elet alone som eone in one an dif some one was in one what on earth does it mean - surely they could get the papers delivered or be visitied by persons of lesser standing to get an idea of l ife n the real world

- add to the the ivory tower phrase that of "Tall Poppy syndrome" - dont use it. It is too often a term used in error when they user really means judicious weed control.

I also wish people would stop using the terms Howard Haters and "of the left" as they are just a dumb as the other two but I despair - I think they have made their way into the national lexicon and I will have to suffer a while yet.

Would you prefer that I used the term "Hallowed halls of learning" or even "Cloisters"

Public idols do the projecting masses, of transference addiction and vicarious existence, a great service when they confer, thru their behaviour, an undeniably powerful and priceless lesson, namely...

... no one is perfect,
... they're only human, and
... dont throw stones from your glass houses.

l think these are fantastic lessons for the young, the dumb, the blameless, the witless and the naively impressionable, the ultimate lesson of... REALITY TRUMPS ILLUSION.

Well done cus, thanx for the lesson, the great footy and the very entertaining gossip that gets around about a young buck like yourself, living large and having a life which most are deeply envious of.