...I had to laugh at the interview last night, Kizon saying that Cousins couldn't stay away from them, no prizes for guessing why!
anyway...the more disturbing part was the fact that the pony tail allegedly spoke with Cousins last week.
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=71572
anyway...the more disturbing part was the fact that the pony tail allegedly spoke with Cousins last week.
It’s all Kizon Cousins as John tells how he ‘helped’ his mate
7th May 2008, 6:00 WST
Just when it seemed it could barely get any worse for fallen West Coast Eagles star and self-confessed drug addict Ben Cousins, it has — he’s now being spoken of in glowing terms by convicted heroin dealer John Kizon.
In a television interview in which he was allowed to gloss over his highly controversial past, the pony-tailed boxer who went to jail in 1982 for possession of heroin and money from the sale of the drug, last night claimed he was close friends with Cousins and spoke to the troubled footballer just last week.
Mr Kizon’s bid to put his mate in a better light came as Cousins and a friend placed a death notice in The West Australian for Bill Christian, the father of controversial boxing trainer Craig, a good friend of Mr Kizon’s.
Craig Christian rose to infamy in 1995 after being charged with the bashing death of a young man outside the Leederville Hotel. He was ultimately acquitted.
In an interview with Today Tonight, Mr Kizon boasted of how he had advised Cousins about his drug addiction since as early as 2003.
Cousins has since confessed to a drug addiction, had his contract axed by the Eagles and is in football limbo. But Mr Kizon’s apparent lack of success as a counsellor did not deter him from telling the world how he had tried to get Cousins on “the right path”.
Sitting next to long-time mate and one of the few survivors of Melbourne’s bloody gangland wars, Mick Gatto — who was in Perth for Mr Christian’s funeral on Monday — Mr Kizon said he confronted Cousins “privately” about his drug use after rumours surfaced about police phone taps of the footballer’s contact with known drug dealers.
But Mr Kizon dismissed allegations he was partly responsible for the troubled footballer’s downfall.
“When we heard Ben was in quite a bit of trouble himself with his problem, we’ve privately had chats with him, with a number of friends of mine, and tried to get him on the straight and narrow,” Mr Kizon said. “I said, ‘Listen mate, you’ve got to overcome your demons . . . you’ve got a few problems but, mate, you’ve got to be strong within yourself. You’ve got to wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror and say, mate, I’m all that matters’.”
Showing that he wasn’t just an expert in one-on-one drug counselling with Brownlow medallists, Mr Kizon said he was well placed to comment on the culture at the Eagles.
He said a “champagne” culture saw the Eagles use Cousins as the face of its corporate and sponsorship events but abandon him when his drug use became public.
“Ben admitted to us that he was having a few problems earlier on (and) no one else would help him, not the club and their so-called people,” Mr Kizon said.
“No one took him for a walk somewhere, sat him on a bench somewhere and said, ‘Listen Ben, we’ve been through this and we understand the streets’. They left him out there to dry and he was on a path to destruction.”
Mr Kizon said Cousins had tried to heed warnings from the club to stay away from him and other so-called colourful identities. But alas, it was too hard for Ben to stay away. “We don’t try to get close to footballers, people try to get close to us. I think we’re likeable,” he said.
Viewers who were hoping that Mr Kizon’s propaganda may at least be sprinkled with a few insights into his past were sorely disappointed — he said his reputation among the police was unwarranted.
“When I was 18 or 19 they mentioned something about a drug charge. Listen, the police and the media would love that because they’d love to blow it up,” he said.
Given that Mr Kizon seems to know so much about the Eagles and footballers, it might have been interesting to know his views about the death of former Channel 7 reporter Chris Mainwaring. But alas, it was not to be. TIFFANY LAURIE
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=71572