November 20, 2007
From The Age
Reported by Rohan Connolly
Full article Click here
WHILE the door has been closed for now on his AFL career, Ben Cousins could become one of the highest-qualified players to grace the ranks of the lower leagues next year.
Reported by Rohan Connolly
Full article Click here
WHILE the door has been closed for now on his AFL career, Ben Cousins could become one of the highest-qualified players to grace the ranks of the lower leagues next year.
The Brownlow medallist, four-time best-and-fairest winner and six-time All-Australian may be free to ply his trade in either the West Australian Football League or in VFL ranks as he goes about his rehabilitation from drug addiction and tries to return to the AFL in 2009.
A spokesman for the AFL said last night that while Cousins was prohibited from training with an AFL club, his capacity to play in Victoria at a lower level was a decision for the VFL to make, and that the former Eagles' champion technically could be free to play in the competition.
That would preclude Cousins joining either Geelong or Collingwood, both now with stand-alone reserves teams, but could leave him free to play with teams aligned with AFL sides, such as Coburg, Sandringham, Casey or Bendigo, or the unaligned likes of Port Melbourne should he decide to make a clean break from his home state in order to secure a place on the list of a second AFL club.
