Such is Life: The Ben Cousins Story

[Angus1]

Just a real pity it wasn't shown as one complete documentary for me. It kind of lost it's point IMO.
I understand that everyone will see it differently but for me in part 1 he actually enjoys drugs. He regards the parties as "good times" and you can tell he genuinely had a good time and doesn't believe he has a problem.

Part 2 is more about his families battle and moreso his fathers battle with his drug addict son. Even when out of the game on so called rehabilitation he is still gong on benders that last a month.
Shaves off his hair because he knows he will test positive.

With all the warnings he's had he still goes back to the drugs.

I think 2011 will be a hell of a year for Ben Cousins.

It will be quiet remarkable if he stays clean.

 

[aneale]

well rule one of delivering a spray is at least make it look like its off the cuff and ad-lib. Reading a script and trying to make it sound like moral outrage comes across as rank desperation to try and be controversial. If they wanted that, they should have brought Aker in and asked his opinion. At least he wouldn't read his 'opinion' out.

 

[Sprout]

Part 2 certainly had a lot more impact than Part 1 by delving deeper into the impact on his family, as well as revealing the true extent of what football means to this guy.

The tragic truth is that it will be a minor miracle for him to stay clean from next year onwards.

 

[wilsonstheman]

brian and ben all seem to say that if richmond didnt pick him up then he may not be here today. Ben says he needed footy and the processes that come with it to help in his recovery.

Not knocking richmond but if no AFL side picked him up... what was stopping him playing in the WAFL or VFL to aid in his recovery??? Surely if playing footy was all about his rehabilitation he could of played at another level.

 

[Oakland Raider]

Pleased Gale & co saying they would want Ben to play on next season. Retiring after a successful AFL level comeback is what makes it satisfying.

 

[Audacious]

i think dividing the documentary up into 2 parts tells us more about the people watching the documentary than Ben Cousins. So many people were judging it and saying they wouldnt watch the second part because the first part was a wank fest. Isnt this the epitome of people getting half the story and then making up their mind on a matter?

This is how rumours start and false allegations come to fruition.. People dont get the full story, but make up their mind and cast judgements on others when they dont have all the facts or evidence in front of them.

I didnt watch the footy show tonight, but obviously from what you guys have said, Newman ripped into it and jumped the gun a lot like many posters on this forum have. Poor form

 

[DivideandMultiply]

i think dividing the documentary up into 2 parts tells us more about the people watching the documentary than Ben Cousins. So many people were judging it and saying they wouldnt watch the second part because the first part was a wank fest. Isnt this the epitome of people getting half the story and then making up their mind on a matter?

This is how rumours start and false allegations coming to fruition.. People dont get the full story, but make up their mind and cast judgements on others when they dont have all the facts or evidence in front of them.

I didnt watch the footy show tonight, but obviously from what you guys have said, Newman ripped into it and jumped the gun a lot like many posters on this forum have. Poor form

Some good points and very worthy of consideration.

 

[Cousinsb]

Just a real pity it wasn't shown as one complete documentary for me. It kind of lost it's point IMO.
I understand that everyone will see it differently but for me in part 1 he actually enjoys drugs. He regards the parties as "good times" and you can tell he genuinely had a good time and doesn't believe he has a problem.

Part 2 is more about his families battle and moreso his fathers battle with his drug addict son. Even when out of the game on so called rehabilitation he is still gong on benders that last a month.
Shaves off his hair because he knows he will test positive.

With all the warnings he's had he still goes back to the drugs.

I think 2011 will be a hell of a year for Ben Cousins.

It will be quiet remarkable if he stays clean.

Hey mate, cheers for the feedback, the reason it was shown in two parts was a commercial decison by channel 7.

Their thinking was to split it up over two nights in prime time for a couple of reasons, one being more advertising revenue and secondly the focus it would bring to the issue would be heightened over two nights in prime time.

I wont lie, the good times were good, but the falls were just as hard.

I shaved my hair off becasuse I had been given conflicting advice on how long the gear stayed in the system, some specialists said 2 months, some 3 some 4. I had been clean about 2 and half months and wasnt going to take the risk.

Who knows if I'll stay clean, only time will tell.

 

[Audacious]

I think the producers of the Footy Show or Sam and Hutchy have sadly underestimated part of their viewer ship.

The comments from both came across as snide/petulant and more about ratings or perhaps bagging a rival station than anything else.

Pretty bottom of the barrel stuff.

ha! Why am i not surprised that Hutchy wasnt invited to comment on Cousins doco... little worm has the honour of being the first journo to stalk an AFL player across the other side of the world. Shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone that Hutchy slagged off the doco seeing as pretty much every other football media person got their face in it except him. His shrill cries backstage of 9's studios of "but im the best newsbreaker and get all the big exclusives!!" can be heard from the other side of the country.

And Sam Newman hates anything channel 7 does which is a reflection of his immaturity and probably one of the reasons he has been divorced 4 times.

 

[B-Rock]

Hey mate, cheers for the feedback, the reason it was shown in two parts was a commercial decison by channel 7.

Their thinking was to split it up over two nights in prime time for a couple of reasons, one being more advertising revenue and secondly the focus it would bring to the issue would be heightened over two nights in prime time.

I wont lie, the good times were good, but the falls were just as hard.

I shaved my hair off becasuse I had been given conflicting advice on how long the gear stayed in the system, some specialists said 2 months, some 3 some 4. I had been clean about 2 and half months and wasnt going to take the risk.

Who knows if I'll stay clean, only time will tell.

Hahaha. Get off it mate.

 

[Cousinsb]

Hahaha. Get off it mate.

Didnt you watch my documentary mate, Im trying.

 

[Glenno23]

Didnt you watch my documentary mate, Im trying.

Nice one "Ben"

 

[wilsonstheman]

Interesting doco ben , quite confronting , your old man seems like a great bloke.

Still leaves a lot of unanswered questions (most of which you will find on here), and although i dont agree with a lot of what you have said/done, much respect for coming on here and having a read of what people away from your 'circle' think.

 

[Cousinsb]

Interesting doco ben , quite confronting , your old man seems like a great bloke.

Still leaves a lot of unanswered questions (most of which you will find on here), and although i dont agree with a lot of what you have said/done, much respect for coming on here and having a read of what people away from your 'circle' think.

No worries mate, Bruiser is a champ. A lion of a man.

Unanswered questions are better left unanswered.

I thought about detailing how I tripped the system, but what's the point? I detail that then the next bunch of 17-20 year olds who are going to be taken pick up on it and the cycle repeats.

Some things are better left unsaid.

Why didnt I detail West Coasts role in more detail, I've got my integrity, they're a club who were a family to me for the better part of 10 years, and you dont dog on your family.

Need some sleep now, no more pills, no red.

 

[DivideandMultiply]

Hey mate, cheers for the feedback, the reason it was shown in two parts was a commercial decison by channel 7.

If you really are Ben Cousins you are a brave man for not anonymously posting on the internet.

I also wouldn't take what any of us say literally. A lack of accountability means we can voice some pretty outrageous and not necessarily truthful opinions.

Now if you arn't Cousins, which is infinitely more likely then lolz.

 

[Cousinsb]

If you really are Ben Cousins you are a brave man for not anonymously posting on the internet.

I also wouldn't take what any of us say literally. A lack of accountability means we can voice some pretty outrageous and not necessarily truthful opinions.

Now if you arn't Cousins, which is infinitely more likely then lolz.

Dont think Ive ever really been an anonymous bloke.

I'd rather hear opinions of the average as opposed to blokes like Hutchy who crawl through my garbage, follow me overseas and sweat on anything do or dont do and then judge for not conforming.

Truth be told, I've been up most of the night but right now I'm icing the hammy.

 

[Registered User]

The worst part of the doco by a F**KIN MILE was the constant inapropriate use of upward inflexions by Cousins and his sister! Bloody TORTURE!! It did me f**kin head in after a while

 

[wceblog]

The documentary was good viewing - the overall impact it has already has had and should continue to have is positive in increasing awareness and understanding of drug addiction.

I didn't expect Ben to answer all the questions nor did I particularly want him to.

Much respect to Bryan Cousins - he is a very resilient man and Ben is incredibly lucky to have him as a father.

I also have great respect for the Richmond Football Club for taking on Ben - even after the board assessed the risk/reward ratio to not be in Ben's favour - particularly considering what his family believed would've been a likely aftermath if he hadn't been re-drafted to the AFL.

http://www.wceblog.com/2010/08/ben-cousins-documentary-such-is-life.html

 

[sue ridge pipe]

Ironic that the only time he cried during the doco was when St Kilda didn't draft him. He nearly killed his father with stress and worry, but it was not being drafted that finally brought him to tears.

His father came out of it looking heroic, and rightly so but Ben's selfishness and narcissism was simply reinforced, particularly in the second part of the doco.

 

[Northhawker]

Ironic that the only time he cried during the doco was when St Kilda didn't draft him. He nearly killed his father with stress and worry, but it was not being drafted that finally brought him to tears.

His father came out of it looking heroic, and rightly so but Ben's selfishness and narcissism was simply reinforced, particularly in the second part of the doco.

This

I had a lot of respect for Ben Cousins, and still do to a degree but the lack of geniune remorse for his family here wasn't good.

 

[Damon_3388]

These ideas might have been raised earlier in the thread (I honestly can't be bothered going through it post-by-post), but I just want to ask - I'm nowhere near as "Cousins obssessed" as some people would be, nor do I claim to be an expert on drugs and their effects, but am I the only one who felt they didn't really learn anything new from this documentary, either about Cousins or drug use in general?

Apart from the "Brian Cousins at the bus stop" incident (probably the only real "unknown" part to me), surely anyone who has been following Ben's story over the years (and there'd be plenty of us) already knew of most of what they covered in the doco. It just seemed like an ordered re-telling of events, with a bit of a "don't do drugs" message mixed in, rather than anything particularly revelatory.

I don't really know what startling new information I was expecting, and I know that by watching on both nights I contributed to the ratings anyway, so Channel Seven probably doesn't care what I think (however it is they manage to measure what I watch, as I've never been surveyed, and don't have one of those set top ratings boxes), but it just felt like a bit of a letdown overall.

I watched it with my mum (who is probably around the same age as Brian Cousins), and she found it startling how he could be so ignorant to and unaware of drug use and its effects, espeically "right under his nose" so to speak. My mum is probably one of the most anti-drug people you'd meet, and has never used anything in her life, but just from growing up as a young person in the '60s and '70s, drugs use among friends and acquaintances was relatively commonplace and common knowledge according to her. Sure, it wasn't all "hard" stuff, but as someone who grew up in that same era, she found it pretty amazing that he'd have no experience or knowledge of drugs whatsoever. The ball you're playing with might be different (the drugs of choice), but the game is still the same.

That being said, credit to Ben and his family for putting themselves out there with this - in particular his father, who showed great composure and strength throughout the documentary and in the question time afterwards - and I can recognise their intentions are likely good and genuine, but you can't blame people for seeing is as a bit of a self-indulgent, self-promoting publicity grab as well.

Also, where is The Lawrence Angwin Story? He's a better example of a player who "pissed it all away" with drugs and so forth, as he never got another chance at AFL level once he was kicked out. He and Karl Norman were like the Peter Doherty and Carl Barât of the league, without the success or cult following. Or do these stories only matter if you were a Brownlow Medal-winning superstar once upon a time?

 

[giantsully]

Dont think Ive ever really been an anonymous bloke.

I'd rather hear opinions of the average as opposed to blokes like Hutchy who crawl through my garbage, follow me overseas and sweat on anything do or dont do and then judge for not conforming.

Truth be told, I've been up most of the night but right now I'm icing the hammy.

So I'm guessing that was actually the bloke, huh? Funny.

For mine, it was all pretty compelling viewing but the second part was a significant improvement (other than a hastily cobbled together conclusion). I can see how it was a worthy exercise - as a parent it was pretty confronting stuff.

Best of luck for the future Ben - think you'll need all the love and support you can grab a hold of!

 

[mcgarnacle]

broadcasting it over two nights killed the impact, IMO. many people wouldve watched it on wednesday night and come to the conclusion then and there that BC is a self-indugent prick.

 

[Off The Couch]

broadcasting it over two nights killed the impact, IMO. many people wouldve watched it on wednesday night and come to the conclusion then and there that BC is a self-indugent prick.

This

I watched most of Wednesday night and very little of last night and my opinion of him hasn't changed one bit.

I will remember him as a great footballer, but a great bloke - never.

 

[Julie_L]

I enjoyed watching the documentary. I don't watch much TV, but this was one show I couldn't miss. I felt that the documentary showed lots of different sides to a complex situation, different points of view and experiences. It showed how drug addiction doesn't just affect the one person (a lesson Ben seemed to eventually learn). It was very honest and didn't shy away from personal criticism from media types. I'm glad Ben has a supportive family - it seems to me that it was this support, rather than the money spent at drug rehab, that helped him through. I hope he eventually finds peace within himself.