more pointless media hype over Ben [Archive]

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WCEFan

15 Jun 2007, 20:44

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21905168-10389,00.html

Mike Colman
June 15, 2007 12:00am

WELL gee, here's a shock. The West Coast Eagles have hit a rough patch and slipped from the top of the AFL table.

Now blow me down if they don't start moves to get Ben Cousins back on the paddock.
All that talk about Cousins's football career being secondary to him "getting his life back together" suddenly starts to ring a bit hollow.

And the real cynics among us can now take another look at the Eagles' motives in bankrolling the errant star's stay in a ritzy rehab centre in Malibu.

In fact, the whole Cousins saga is set to blow up again in the face of his club and the AFL.

As far as his rumoured comeback is concerned, it's a chicken and egg situation. Which came first, Cousins's return to the straight and narrow and a standard of mental and physical fitness required to play top-class football, or the Eagles need to bolster its position on the AFL table?

Or are we expected to believe that the stars just happened to come into alignment at the same time?

Of course the club will say that Cousins will never come back to football until he is ready; that his well-being will be the No. 1 priority in any decision, but that is playing down the hold the Eagles have over him.

They stuck by him, they supported him, and most of all, they footed the bill for that trip to Malibu – even allowing for the fact that they pay him around $800,000 a season.

Can you imagine him telling them: "Hang on fellas. I'm not quite right yet. Give us a couple more months willya?"

Hardly – any more than you could imagine the Eagles showing him the door in the first place when his drug use and anti-social behaviour reached the stage where they actually had to go public with it.

Cases of football clubs sacking players who still have even a slight chance of winning matches for them are as rare as South Sydney finals appearances in recent seasons. In fact, the only one that comes to mind is the Broncos' ditching of Neville Costigan.

Costigan was a player in whom the Broncos had invested a lot of time and money. He was a special favourite of coach Wayne Bennett and had Origin written all over him. Still, they showed him the door and it forced him to turn his life around – something that any number of "last" chances from the Broncos would never have achieved.

It was a big call by Broncos boss Bruno Cullen and one over which fellow CEOs are probably still shaking their heads.

There is only one thing that a CEO fears as much as being forced to let a good player go – and that's seeing him play well for another club. There is no shortage of irony in the fact that Costigan got his second life at Canberra, the club that recently stuck by halfback Todd Carney after the latest in a series of serious breaches of discipline.

When the club decided not to sack Carney but bid adios to his partner in crime, the less well-credentialled winger Steve Irwin, Raiders CEO Don Furner came right out and said what has been obvious for years.

"Sometimes there are double standards and sometimes there are different qualities of players, and sometimes exceptions are made for better players or players that have been at the club longer and that's a fact of life," he said. "The reality is we are running a business that has to win football games."

Furner said that if Carney followed a five-step rehabilitation plan he would hope to have him back in harness in time for the finals.

At last he was being honest, which is something that cannot be said with all certainty about the Eagles.

wce_all_da_way

15 Jun 2007, 20:51

I stopped reading after the first couple of lines.

Luke124

15 Jun 2007, 21:05

Mike Colman?
Never heard of this dropkick
Obviously just trying to get his name is the news.

greennick

15 Jun 2007, 21:38

Read that last night.

Found it interesting that he could only come up with RL examples for everything. I would say that he is a weak Northern based reporter who is just cut that Ben is coming back. It is a stupid article that shows a complete lack of understanding of AFL and of the Ben Cousins situation.

Edit:
About that last line, WC is playing a PR game which they are forced into because of dipstick reporters like this guy. If they said we'll throw him in rehab for a few months and then bring him back in time for finals everyone would be up in arms. The only way it seems they can win is by bringing him back next year. **** them.

Emerald

15 Jun 2007, 21:52

Mike, you're a tool.

I wonder if he's a Sydney supporter?

Mighty Eagles

15 Jun 2007, 21:55

Mike Colman?
Never heard of this dropkick
Obviously just trying to get his name is the news.
Too right!

lyall

15 Jun 2007, 21:59

Boring.

QL 21

15 Jun 2007, 22:29

I stopped reading after the first couple of lines.

Same. Couldn't give a flying **** what people say about Cousins anymore. We've heard it all before anyway.

Looking forward to his return soon. :thumbsu:

SOSBenny

15 Jun 2007, 22:54

I hope he wins another premiership medallion and sticks it up all these moronic media personalities arses :thumbsu:

GoOsH1

15 Jun 2007, 23:56

if it had been up to cousins he would have been playing long before now. so to say that the eagles are just getting him back with no concern for his well being is mind bogglingly stupid.

Embers

16 Jun 2007, 00:02

I stopped reading after the first couple of lines.

I stopped reading 4 months ago. I doubt his mum even gives a shit about all this crap anymore never mind me

kilaw

16 Jun 2007, 00:35

I'm not really stressed about this. Reading the article, there are quite a few tells that show that he is just trying to stir shit up and get his name out there like the Robert Wallses and the Caros.

Personally, the point of view of these 'journalists' means nothing to me. I think some people often mistake these point-of-view short essays for actual news journalism. What he is conveying is not in fact news, it is feed for all those Cousins and Eagle haters, I'm telling you, these people hear there's something bad on Cuzz in the paper and they go buy it and hang it up on their walls and it makes them feel good about themselves because they are perfect.

There are only 2 types of people who don't want Cousins to return. There's the ones that are truly wary of his ability on the inside, but disguise it with 'he's a drug addict and a bad role model,' and there's the ones who believe that someone who has tried a drug shouldn't be allowed on the football field for 12 months.

What he writes isn't very credible, Cousins has been suspended for 3 months now and has been rehabilitating for the whole duration. Now Cousins hasn't even returned yet, and he's crying that they are rushing him back to get us out of our on-field 'problems'. I read that he may be back round 16, if that is what he is referring to, who's to say we won't run into some form in the month before the finals? It happened last year didn't it?

I hope this guys efforts are futile, no one deserves to make money for this.

since82eags

16 Jun 2007, 01:01

Doesn't bother me shouldn't bother Ben not going to effect the clubs decision i think Nisbett sounded like as did Woosha that they were not looking to get him back asap he needs to get his body and head right and that is not a short term affair this really is like a knee reconstruction in terms of time but if the decision comes this year then good but if not how kick arse are we going to be next year.:)

tonywce23

16 Jun 2007, 01:02

I've met Mike Colman before, Brisbane based journo

Dylan82

16 Jun 2007, 01:02

Ugh Colman....

Has a 'column' up here in the worthless excuse of a rag called the Courier Mail.

He is well known here for being a constant at trumpeting the Brisbane Broncos and Qld rugby league over anything else, ESPECIALLY the AFL...

The article is typical for him (and the entire journalistic coverage that AFL still gets in Brisbane where the rugby-loving NewsLtd media rule the roost).

By the way, NewsLtd, the owners of the Courier Mail (and thus Colman's paymasters) not so coincidentally own 50% of the Brisbane Broncos...

Shows how much credibility he has... :rolleyes:

zero

16 Jun 2007, 01:50

wow, what an unbelievable tool this guy is.

for starters, 8 and 3 is hardly a rough patch worthy of hitting any panic buttons. if anything i would think that cuz coming back now, when we are SECOND SPOT (we are in real trouble, i know :rolleyes:), is indicative that his return has NOTHING to do with how we are going on field.

secondly, the eagles are going to get most if not all the rehab money back

this guy is almost as clueless as caro. i mean honestly...if we were outside the 8 and really struggling you might be able to make this circumstantial suggestion, but second spot?

arfadunger

16 Jun 2007, 08:16

The contents of this article prove that he has no idea what he is talking about. I submitted a coment to that effect in respect of this article 24 hours pointing that out, and highlighting a few facts where he is completely off the mark. Regretably that comment has not been published.

Cockney Nutter

16 Jun 2007, 12:45

Forthe benefit of those who didn't read it I have taken the liberty of summarising the article:

Mike Colman
June 15, 2007 12:00am

blah blah blah I hate West Coast

wce4premiership

16 Jun 2007, 15:24

I stopped reading after the first couple of lines.lol interesting this be the post straight after the article. I also read about two lines then skipped to see peoples opinions, i am not gonna read the rest i know it's gonna be crap.

Shanii

16 Jun 2007, 15:35

nearlyblonde

16 Jun 2007, 18:12

sydney eagle

16 Jun 2007, 18:22

Not quite on topic really, and for that I apologise, but did enyone else hear the reported comments of Ackerman on Ben on last nights 7 news?

Just stopped short, albiet marginally, of naming him as a long time cheat because he had trouble keeping up with him when they played and "don`t I bust my arse just as hard as him?" so, if I can`t beat him he must be a cheat.

Still fuming!! No reason to fume. Just Akermanis playing "look at me! I'm controversial !" I didn't think that anyone listened to anything Aker had to say anyway. Was a great player but has always had trouble with his inflated ego.

nearlyblonde

16 Jun 2007, 19:11

No reason to fume. Just Akermanis playing "look at me! I'm controversial !" I didn't think that anyone listened to anything Aker had to say anyway. Was a great player but has always had trouble with his inflated ego.

Seems that I`m not alone in my fuming...whole thread devoted to this on EFH.

Edit: I really can spell Akermanis, my bad.:o

shoe

16 Jun 2007, 20:18

What a horribly written article..

I turned off the radio that night as soon as Aker came on. Just don't want to hear his shit anymore, sick of it, stick to footy buddy. Looks like i made the right decision.

hype

17 Jun 2007, 00:51

Juddism

17 Jun 2007, 11:09

Just heard that the sunday times is posting an article about benny.

Cousins has decided that he will have to wait 1000 days before I can have a beer with him ;).

Good on him, really is a good way to get the press back on his side and prove to everyone that he means business.

Can't wait benny! :thumbsu:

I think the more disturbing part of the article is that he needs a security guard to ensure he doesn't get into any trouble...Is Ben suggesting that he's going to need a security guard to ensure he doesn't get on the booze/gear/whatever over the next 3 years? If so, the obvious question will still remain...

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21919633-661,00.html

Keyser Soze

17 Jun 2007, 12:49

^^^^^^

Depends on what the security guard was there for - may have been more to prevent some dingbat wanting to give Cuz a hard time rather than monitor what he was drinking.

Juddism

17 Jun 2007, 13:45

^^^^^^

Depends on what the security guard was there for - may have been more to prevent some dingbat wanting to give Cuz a hard time rather than monitor what he was drinking.

bit of both I'd imagine??

http://realfooty.com.au/news/news/cousins-a-club-issue-gooding/2007/06/16/1181414611766.html

the last paragraph of this article is disturbing to say the least...

hype

17 Jun 2007, 16:48

I don't care if they have to stitch cousins lips together and.. somehow get him food and water (did not want to say inject :p). As long as he stays off anything that will make him do something stupid. Its ok with me. Just let him stay out of the spot light for the rest of his career.

Is everyone in perth a bloody coffin cheater these days??

3Judd3

17 Jun 2007, 19:30

All this pathetic nonsense hype about Cousins will continue until he finally plays for us again.

ITS TIME TO CUT THE CRAP AND LET THE BLOKE PLAY

Keyser Soze

17 Jun 2007, 23:40

All this pathetic nonsense hype about Cousins will continue until he finally plays for us again.

ITS TIME TO CUT THE CRAP AND LET THE BLOKE PLAY

Unfortunately I doubt that it will stop then.

Expect weekly reports about where Cousins was, what he was doing and who he was with.

Will probably continue until he retires.

3Judd3

17 Jun 2007, 23:52

Yeah actually can just imagine each Sunday Times cover having a pic of Benny leaving a bar or club.

But then I can't wait until the last Sunday Times of September when Benny is holding up the cup again :thumbsu: