New supporters welcome???

[Goldenblue]

Good luck to Ben, I hope the Tigers get a lot from him and I do believe he will be a great asset to the Tigers with his attitude to the game and training.

I would never swap sides for a player, I love my club and I have been through the ups and down with them from inception.

Ben had many chances, it was first noted back in 2001 with his drug use and he was destroying himself. I do think the Eagles handled the situation very badly and should have done something a long time ago. However, I do believe the club has learned from their mistakes.

The best situation for Cousins and the Eagles are to part ways. Both parties will move on and the Eagles will rebuild as a club and Ben as a player.

Good luck to Richmond and Ben for 09.

 

[anti.]

sorry anti , i dont normally have a go at westcoast supporters.

in every state i have a team that i dont mind as much as the other.
in wa i like w/c more than freo
in sa i like crows more than port
sydney & brisbane in my mind i prefer lions

but today i will make an exeption, you must be a real tool.

he was a cancer & we had to cut him loose.....what a pathetic post

so if your mother,father,sister,brother,son or daughter or best friend
contracted cancer you would '' cut him loose'' will you

if you dont support your players when they need help or at least help them to get back on their feet. what sort of a person are you

people like you would have told adam ramanauskus to get stuffed when you found out he had cancer.

i am wrapped that ben cousins is at richmond & wanted him last year when west coast sacked him before he was de-registered.

but in all honesty, westcoast should of taken him back to show the support that richmond have offered him.

so next time you are speaking (posting) about people dont refer to them as a cancer.

i think you are confusing the word 'cancer' with the disease 'cancer'.

ben cousins does not have cancer.

he was a cancer at our club and was bringing it down.

now, you cant honestly say that ben cousins didnt have a negative effect on my club with his actions. yes, he was a great player and we all love him but he had to be cut.

things were not going to get better.

 

[Mario Speedwagon]

anti what?

 

[THE_GUN]

i think you are confusing the word 'cancer' with the disease 'cancer'.

ben cousins does not have cancer.

he was a cancer at our club and was bringing it down.

now, you cant honestly say that ben cousins didnt have a negative effect on my club with his actions. yes, he was a great player and we all love him but he had to be cut.

things were not going to get better.

would you cut a family member as well ??
if not why he was a favourite son in time of need the club SHOULD of stood by him.

 

[Lach72]

Lolza @ this thread.

Good for Benny to get a new gig, but change teams for him...geebus.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=xxuPXDlMkIU

your love is like a knife masta

 

[Bojangles17]

welcome aboard partner, do yourself a favour and buy the tiges centenary history book, a steel at $50, once read you'll be one of us

 

[anti.]

would you cut a family member as well ??
if not why he was a favourite son in time of need the club SHOULD of stood by him.

we're talking about a football here. west coast stood by cousins for a long long long (a very long) time. we said he was on his last chance a long time ago then he went off the rails....and we still let him back....then he ****ed up again, what exactly should west coast have done?

its not as if we've cut him off for good, im sure he keeps in contact with the players and some of the other blokes at the club...we just dont need him around our guys as we move forward, im sure he'd like to move on as well.

ben cousins is and always will be remembered as a west coast player and it was disheartening to see him go, but west coast had to be strong and stand by our decision. i agree with them.

 

[sedders]

I disagee with them anti, I cant support our current board and therefore will have more of an interest in richmond this year than the wce.

cant wait to see the greatest wce champion playing again, too bad nisbet, barnaba and co didn't have the balls to reinstate him this year

 

[KaLL]

would you cut a family member as well ??
if not why he was a favourite son in time of need the club SHOULD of stood by him.

This is a case of drug addiction.

Ben cousins was addicted to drugs.

As far as i'm concerned, WC did quite a bit to try and help him. They sent him to an expensive rehab in America, with full pay mind you, allowed him psychological, physical and mental treatements, and gave him all the time in the world to recover.

But Ben let them down. He got himself into the wrong place. And it became a detraction for him to be at the club. The club felt the best thing it could do, would be to cut him loose. For ben to learn a lesson, and for the negative stigma that had taken over the club to be lifted.

This is extremely common, drug users, within families, can be managed and managed but eventually, in most cases, it gets to a point where in order to get the message through to the player, the family member has to be left to his own will. Ties severed, in order to get them to realise the drastic nature of the addiction.

Ben cousins had to be removed, for his own benefit. His head was too big for his body, and i believe, his heart truly wasnt in his attempts to break the addiction.

 

[Audacious]

we're talking about a football here. west coast stood by cousins for a long long long (a very long) time. we said he was on his last chance a long time ago then he went off the rails....and we still let him back....then he ****ed up again, what exactly should west coast have done?

disagree.

Nisbett and Co would have known about Cousins drug habits back when he and Michael Gardiner were making headlines. But when the Eagles were gearing up for a premiership tilt from 2004 onwards its easy to turn a blind eye to any misbehaviour and "stand by a player" because it is in the teams best interest for the short term. As soon as we bowed out in 2007 and lost Judd however, (and any realistic chance of winning another flag in that premiership window) it was much easier to cut him loose and say "oh but we stood by him long enough".

I dont believe the Eagles did the best thing possible for Bens health as soon as they could. Nor do i believe they stood by a club champion for a long time. They allowed a champion footballer to stay at the club during a premiership window. As soon as that window was closed, they kicked him out.

Geez the Eagles didnt even wait to find out if he was guilty of what the cops charged him with at the end of 2007. As it turns out, the charges were dropped, and so the clubs greatest ever player was delisted by an incident in which he was cleared of any wrong doing.

So much for standing by him....

 

[SS_Fury]

I disagee with them anti, I cant support our current board and therefore will have more of an interest in richmond this year than the wce.

cant wait to see the greatest wce champion playing again, too bad nisbet, barnaba and co didn't have the balls to reinstate him this year

your putting a player above the team...shame on you

 

[SS_Fury]

disagree.

Nisbett and Co would have known about Cousins drug habits back when he and Michael Gardiner were making headlines. But when the Eagles were gearing up for a premiership tilt from 2004 onwards its easy to turn a blind eye to any misbehaviour and "stand by a player" because it is in the teams best interest for the short term. As soon as we bowed out in 2007 and lost Judd however, (and any realistic chance of winning another flag in that premiership window) it was much easier to cut him loose and say "oh but we stood by him long enough".

I dont believe the Eagles did the best thing possible for Bens health as soon as they could. Nor do i believe they stood by a club champion for a long time. They allowed a champion footballer to stay at the club during a premiership window. As soon as that window was closed, they kicked him out.

Geez the Eagles didnt even wait to find out if he was guilty of what the cops charged him with at the end of 2007. As it turns out, the charges were dropped, and so the clubs greatest ever player was delisted by an incident in which he was cleared of any wrong doing.

So much for standing by him....

noone said what the club did was right- however he DID have chances...the clubs hands were tied, the AFL were hawking over us...do you really think it was so cut and dry that since judd left and our flag tilt ended, we just sent ben packing? I would doubt you would say that if you saw the way Ben and woosha embraced each other re: 2006 GF.
The fact is he kept stuffing up, the final straw he got off on a technicality....ask yourself why even in the first place a 'sting' even occured? Or do you think he was still innocent of everything?

 

[THE_GUN]

disagree.

Nisbett and Co would have known about Cousins drug habits back when he and Michael Gardiner were making headlines. But when the Eagles were gearing up for a premiership tilt from 2004 onwards its easy to turn a blind eye to any misbehaviour and "stand by a player" because it is in the teams best interest for the short term. As soon as we bowed out in 2007 and lost Judd however, (and any realistic chance of winning another flag in that premiership window) it was much easier to cut him loose and say "oh but we stood by him long enough".

I dont believe the Eagles did the best thing possible for Bens health as soon as they could. Nor do i believe they stood by a club champion for a long time. They allowed a champion footballer to stay at the club during a premiership window. As soon as that window was closed, they kicked him out.

Geez the Eagles didnt even wait to find out if he was guilty of what the cops charged him with at the end of 2007. As it turns out, the charges were dropped, and so the clubs greatest ever player was delisted by an incident in which he was cleared of any wrong doing.

So much for standing by him....

exactly my point, but worded a hell of a lot better than i could of put it.

and to anti, no disrespect but my brother in law was a drug addict & his father cut him out.

he eventually died 7 we were all left feeling we should of done more

 

[KaLL]

I love the irony in the fact that most of these supporters would kick and scream if ben's drug habits where dealt with in the beginning.

 

[KaLL]

exactly my point, but worded a hell of a lot better than i could of put it.

and to anti, no disrespect but my brother in law was a drug addict & his father cut him out.

he eventually died 7 we were all left feeling we should of done more

Wasnt Anti, it was me.

And it happened within my family, hell of a lot closer than brother in law though

 

[THE_GUN]

Wasnt Anti, it was me.

And it happened within my family, hell of a lot closer than brother in law though

man i had to go through it as if it was my family , wife still hasnt gotten over it 8 years

 

[purple hater]

disagree.

Nisbett and Co would have known about Cousins drug habits back when he and Michael Gardiner were making headlines. But when the Eagles were gearing up for a premiership tilt from 2004 onwards its easy to turn a blind eye to any misbehaviour and "stand by a player" because it is in the teams best interest for the short term. As soon as we bowed out in 2007 and lost Judd however, (and any realistic chance of winning another flag in that premiership window) it was much easier to cut him loose and say "oh but we stood by him long enough".

Oh yeah, much easier to cut him loose, because sacking a favourite son is always the easy way out, was never going to cause a shit storm at the club or in the media. Was never going to crush the spirit of the football club, was never going to upset fans and members, was never going to be detrimental to the club in the short term.

I dont believe the Eagles did the best thing possible for Bens health as soon as they could. Nor do i believe they stood by a club champion for a long time. They allowed a champion footballer to stay at the club during a premiership window. As soon as that window was closed, they kicked him out.

You are kidding, they stood by him for years. Maybe they allowed him to stay because he told them what they wanted to hear (unlike Gardiner who told them he would do what he wanted and see who he wanted and was traded for that attitude). Maybe they were a bit gullible here, a bit like a parent who believes it when their kid tells them they aren't doing drugs, they believe it because that is the easiest thing to do and they want to believe it.

I love the way Ben is never held accountable for his own health and lifestyle choices, it is always West Coasts fault that he chose to go down the path he did.

Geez the Eagles didnt even wait to find out if he was guilty of what the cops charged him with at the end of 2007. As it turns out, the charges were dropped, and so the clubs greatest ever player was delisted by an incident in which he was cleared of any wrong doing.

So much for standing by him....

He wasn't charged because he had a lawyer who got him out of having a drug test through a loop hole in a very new law. Keep in mind that his phone was being tapped and the police knew exactly what he was up to, they just weren't as smart as his suit.

So what if the Eagles did keep him on the list? He is charged with bringing the game into disrepute by the AFL anyway. He still spends a year out and the club gets some sanctions thrown in for their trouble and we miss out on early picks we got in the last couple of drafts, would that have made you happier?

Anti is right, he may have started off benign, but in the end he was a malignancy. Our club is better off without him, and, in years to come he may well reflect that being sacked was the turning point in his life and he was better off without us as well.

 

[larrikin]

Can we get the whole "family" thing out of this

The Eagles weren't Ben's family, and Richmond aren't now. Yes their support is important, crucial even, but these clubs are his employers, not his "family".

We all have our close family and friends. Those are the most important people to you in personal crisis. Yes some of those might also work for your employer, but it doesn't make your employer one of them.

It's fine for us as fans to be passionate and get into the club tribal thing, but players need to maintain their own support networks outside of that. To lump the sole blame on West Coast for Cousins' current situation is crazy - where is the onus on himself and his "family"?

 

[THE_GUN]

Can we get the whole "family" thing out of this

The Eagles weren't Ben's family, and Richmond aren't now. Yes their support is important, crucial even, but these clubs are his employers, not his "family".

We all have our close family and friends. Those are the most important people to you in personal crisis. Yes some of those might also work for your employer, but it doesn't make your employer one of them.

It's fine for us as fans to be passionate and get into the club tribal thing, but players need to maintain their own support networks outside of that. To lump the sole blame on West Coast for Cousins' current situation is crazy - where is the onus on himself and his "family"?

essendon..........adam ramanauskus
nth melb...........jason mccartney
richmond..........g.polak

if the clubs arnt family, perhaps all the above mentioned should of been sacked soon as they got sick/injured.

the club does owe loyalty to players who are in need of it

 

[anti.]

dont worry about it larri, i dont think either side is going to budge.

 

[Flymaster]

to masta and all new supporters WELCOME to TIGERLAND!!! why barrack for a crap team when you can barrack for the tigeees.

We should welcome all supporters the more supporters the better.

I can understand changing teams as most other teams lack passion and vision and the tiges have plenty of both.

Hmm, surely that is tongue in cheek? Since West Coast has been in the competition they have played in 17 finals series and won 3 premierships compared to Richmond's 2 finals series and 0 premierships...

But you do have a much better team song (one of the best in the league IMO) - pity we haven't heard it much over the past 25 years - but I do think that is about to change. I think you would have made the top 8 in 2009 even without Cousins. Now you are certainties to play finals. Best of luck.

 

[Forrest Gimp]

essendon..........adam ramanauskus
nth melb...........jason mccartney
richmond..........g.polak

if the clubs arnt family, perhaps all the above mentioned should of been sacked soon as they got sick/injured.

the club does owe loyalty to players who are in need of it

He got support. He had it. He chose to ignore it and **** up his career time and time again. How much as a club were we expected to cop? Polak, Mccartney, Rama: Their issues were not SELF-INFLICTED. We tried to help him with his issues, he still went and done his thing. He was finally kicked out (after an amount of negative media attention no other club in the land could understand).

Don't tell me that the Eagles just deserted him and left him to rot because you don't have a clue. We all wish that he was still here playing for us, but he isn't, and it's all his fault.

 

[wce4premiership]

My support is

ben cousins >>> west coast >>> richmond

 

[mantis]

essendon..........adam ramanauskus
nth melb...........jason mccartney
richmond..........g.polak
if the clubs arnt family, perhaps all the above mentioned should of been sacked soon as they got sick/injured.

the club does owe loyalty to players who are in need of it

Sorry Tigers board for intruding again, but The Gun is an idiot.

All the players he mentioned, got sick or injured without choice. Cuzzy decided to take drugs, totally different to the examples he gave.

You are a disgrace to try & make them out as the same.

 

[larrikin]

essendon..........adam ramanauskus
nth melb...........jason mccartney
richmond..........g.polak

if the clubs arnt family, perhaps all the above mentioned should of been sacked soon as they got sick/injured.

the club does owe loyalty to players who are in need of it

You missed my point completely.

As an employer I personally would support my people through any of the situations you listed, I may even support Ben. The onus of responsibilty as an employer, however, is not on me to fix the individuals' personal circumstance.

The immediate circle of family and friends around you is far more important than any employer / footy club.