lol you make it sound like your opinion is worthy, im sure Cousins doesnt care
i bet some people you know probaly dont think your a top bloke, OH NO!
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Such is Life: The Ben Cousins Story
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lol you make it sound like your opinion is worthy, im sure Cousins doesnt care
i bet some people you know probaly dont think your a top bloke, OH NO!
I thought the second episode was much better than the first, the first i definitely felt glorified drug use, as someone who has dabbled with coke and pills in the past it honestly made me wanna go out and get on it so to speak. The second part where Ben punches on with his old man at 4 in the morning to go and get drugs is really confronting and brings home the addiction side of it.
One aspect which i think was glossed over which was the most important educational tool that i think could've been used was the type of drugs Ben was using at his lowest points and based on the crack pipes that were flying around in 07-08 that was Ice! You have to remember that Ben was a highly functioning league footballer until 07 even on the cocaine and ecstasy on weekend binges....fair enough he may have partied hard occassionally but many in society and in football do that and still function properly and are not addicts....when Ben found Ice and the crack pipe around 06-07 thats when he started going down hill, training poorly, bad attitude etc. It was definitely the ice that made him drive at 4 in the morning to score and take his old man with him, ecstacy and cocaine generally dont drive people to those levels.. ice does. In my opinion the greatest message in all of this was stay away from the crack pipe!!!
Kids are gonna do drugs and experiment as long as we're around but educating them on the different levels of drugs (and there are levels) is paramount, my message to kids of teenage level are if you're going to try and experiment with drugs stay away from ice (and heroin) whatever you do do not go near it as you've seen with Ben Cousins that shit ****s you up, it does not discriminate, it is highly addictive and can control your life after only a handful of times taking it. Other drugs such as ecstasy, coke and speed while dangerous and addictive to a certain extent do not have near the power and potency of crystal meth. Prior to experimenting educate yourself on the dangers of all drugs and be as smart and safe about it as you can, thats what i did and if you do that in most cases it will be a phase and you will grow out of it quickly.
That was the greatest message here re the "war on drugs" and it was lost in the doco.
One aspect which i think was glossed over which was the most important educational tool that i think could've been used was the type of drugs Ben was using at his lowest points and based on the crack pipes that were flying around in 07-08 that was Ice! You have to remember that Ben was a highly functioning league footballer until 07 even on the cocaine and ecstasy on weekend binges....fair enough he may have partied hard occassionally but many in society and in football do that and still function properly and are not addicts....when Ben found Ice and the crack pipe around 06-07 thats when he started going down hill, training poorly, bad attitude etc. It was definitely the ice that made him drive at 4 in the morning to score and take his old man with him, ecstacy and cocaine generally dont drive people to those levels.. ice does. In my opinion the greatest message in all of this was stay away from the crack pipe!!!
Kids are gonna do drugs and experiment as long as we're around but educating them on the different levels of drugs (and there are levels) is paramount, my message to kids of teenage level are if you're going to try and experiment with drugs stay away from ice (and heroin) whatever you do do not go near it as you've seen with Ben Cousins that shit ****s you up, it does not discriminate, it is highly addictive and can control your life after only a handful of times taking it. Other drugs such as ecstasy, coke and speed while dangerous and addictive to a certain extent do not have near the power and potency of crystal meth. Prior to experimenting educate yourself on the dangers of all drugs and be as smart and safe about it as you can, thats what i did and if you do that in most cases it will be a phase and you will grow out of it quickly.
That was the greatest message here re the "war on drugs" and it was lost in the doco.
tugga
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Great post. Ice is the most evil drug in society. It really does cause people to do some serious shit.
Great post. Ice is the most evil drug in society. It really does cause people to do some serious shit.
NSWCROW
Make me an Admin!
Cuz's sister - hawt
Cuz's dad - Legend !!
Cuz - 2nd half 06 prelim.......nuff said
Cuz's dad - Legend !!
Cuz - 2nd half 06 prelim.......nuff said
I don't understand why peoples opinions would change from the first night to the second night.
There's nothing in the second night that 'redeems' Cousins if you already think he's a knob. If anything, he just reinforces it further. We never actually see anything of him getting clean, like I said earlier. It goes from him being on drugs to attempting to rejoin the AFL. And then again, that entire saga just showed that Cousins still thinks the world revolves around him. They never really even explained the head shaving incident. Why did he do it? Because he was afraid he was going to test postive? That doesn't paint him in a good light.
He seemed to think that playing in the AFL is a birthright for him. Any sane person would be thankful that they were getting another chance. Cousins was still bitter and blaming the AFL for everything. Sure, they probably didn't handle everything the right way, but they had every right to kick him out of the league. And they had every right to test him as much as they wanted before he was allowed back in. His father seemed to understand that, with his "I would be fine if they tested him every single day" comment, but Cousins himself did not.
It's the same with the whole "the WA police set me up wah wah wah" line. Who cares? I would have called the media too if I were the cops. Cousins was parading around like a complete moron giving the metaphorical finger to the police. They had a chance to make him look like a fool for his actions and they did it. Fair enough.
Essentially, the problem with Cousins is that he never seemed to acknowledge that he brought things upon himself. He certainly took the blame for his own drug taking, but not the resulting events that were due to his own drug taking.
There's nothing in the second night that 'redeems' Cousins if you already think he's a knob. If anything, he just reinforces it further. We never actually see anything of him getting clean, like I said earlier. It goes from him being on drugs to attempting to rejoin the AFL. And then again, that entire saga just showed that Cousins still thinks the world revolves around him. They never really even explained the head shaving incident. Why did he do it? Because he was afraid he was going to test postive? That doesn't paint him in a good light.
He seemed to think that playing in the AFL is a birthright for him. Any sane person would be thankful that they were getting another chance. Cousins was still bitter and blaming the AFL for everything. Sure, they probably didn't handle everything the right way, but they had every right to kick him out of the league. And they had every right to test him as much as they wanted before he was allowed back in. His father seemed to understand that, with his "I would be fine if they tested him every single day" comment, but Cousins himself did not.
It's the same with the whole "the WA police set me up wah wah wah" line. Who cares? I would have called the media too if I were the cops. Cousins was parading around like a complete moron giving the metaphorical finger to the police. They had a chance to make him look like a fool for his actions and they did it. Fair enough.
Essentially, the problem with Cousins is that he never seemed to acknowledge that he brought things upon himself. He certainly took the blame for his own drug taking, but not the resulting events that were due to his own drug taking.
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TheBrownDog
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lol you make it sound like your opinion is worthy, im sure Cousins doesnt care
i bet some people you know probaly dont think your a top bloke, OH NO!
How did you arrive at that point - i'm sure your quite correct in saying that Cousins doesn't care - that has been part of his problem for a long time, but this is a forum where opinions are allowed to be given and I have given mine. It never ceases to amaze me that should people have a different opinion from the one that is expected that they cop criticism
No I don't, but I do know some people who think I'm a top chick and I think I will continue to survive if some people don't like me. I'm kinda struggling to actually find the point of your post - but again, each to their own.
Is it true that the DVD will be released with 2 hours of extra unshown footage?
- Dec 7, 2001
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I liked Gerad Healy's last comment, about maybe having a chat to the real Ben Cousins one day.
A long road ahead for ben and it starts here. he has to learn to like and accept himself for himself, no one else.
You wish him well. Hope he survives the journey from football to normal life.
A long road ahead for ben and it starts here. he has to learn to like and accept himself for himself, no one else.
You wish him well. Hope he survives the journey from football to normal life.
there are avatars of bouncing ****, surely a bloke smoking a pipe is acceptable too?
R
Rumblah#16
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This, although the mods will take it down the second they see yours, sadly.
grizzlym
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I know someone who was involved in the Cousins documentary. He said that the missing footage is 'pretty full on', both because of what it showed and who it showed.
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Again I ask, where is The Laurence Angwin Story? Or do you have to be a Brownlow Medal-winning superstar for people to care about your wellbeing and health post-drug-related expulsion from the league?
- Jun 23, 2008
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What I mean is, why do people act like Cousins is the only AFL footballer to ever have a drug problem? Angwin was basically banished from the league a good couple of years before Cousins' issues became public knowledge.
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TheBrownDog
- Oct 4, 2007
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Because Angwin wasn't a premiership playing, all australian, brownlow medalist and he also elected not to have a camera crew follow him around for two years and then receive 600,000 for selling his story - this apparently is the criteria.
But he is the most famous.
Your right, if Angwin was a gun and then he had his troubles, he would get a story on ch7. That's society for you: the higher they are, the more interesting it is when they fall.
- Sep 9, 2009
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It's a fair point with regards to the Angwin and care, though I suppose it was 2004 and the current policy which does include the counselling etc didn't start until 2005. The Blues were right to sack him in a playing sense though, given his career had only just started and he'd had a couple of off field incidents already without doing much on it, that's not to say that you shouldn't provide some form of support for a player, even now.
I've been wondering why no one has mentioned Gary Ablett Snr in any of the discussion (unless I've missed it). There's a few parallels there, I mean if you want to talk about going off the rails, few have gone of the rails quite as bad as Gary, and we are talking a good 4 or 5 years at the latter stages of his career leading up to the year 2000 and that tragedy. Ricky Nixon was managing him through that worst time too, but I dunno Ricky seems to be talking like the way Ben was was a shock to him (come on he's managed Gary Ablett & Wayne Carey). Not to mention that Gary was mixed up with drugs before he started at Hawthorn in 1982.
Anyway my point this long overdue type of public discussion could have started about 10 years ago. I'm sure it was well known what Gary up to at the very end of his playing days, and he'd had to admit to a bit (reluctantly) when in court. Gary of course never was and never will be the type of person capable of talking about these issues himself like Cuz, but geez I reckon we missed an opportunty then to bring forward a lot of this discussion, and to have got the programs the AFL put in place a bit sooner. I mean if a player recognised by many as the greatest ever winds up taking heroin, and later admits to using other drugs at the end of his career, you may have thought this all might have started sooner.
The thing is though, uimm, Cousins initiated the documentary so you can't really ask what about the The Lawrence Angwin Story or whatever. If Seven decided to do a story on drugs in football and it just focussed on one high profile player you'd have a point.
I think we have to understand the goals and motivations of the piece and look beyond the channel seven circus and spin. It wasn't a cautionary tale, it wasn't a message against drugs, it was simply a document of a famous footballers situation. That's what Cousins wanted right from the start. When you understand that, the question of remorse, the question of glorifying drugs, the question of why don't they do one for Angwin doesn't come into play as it wasn't the point of the show, despite perhaps being packaged like that after the fact. A lot of people wanted it to be a lot of different things, but if you look at what Cousins wanted it to be, it makes a lot more sense.
I think we have to understand the goals and motivations of the piece and look beyond the channel seven circus and spin. It wasn't a cautionary tale, it wasn't a message against drugs, it was simply a document of a famous footballers situation. That's what Cousins wanted right from the start. When you understand that, the question of remorse, the question of glorifying drugs, the question of why don't they do one for Angwin doesn't come into play as it wasn't the point of the show, despite perhaps being packaged like that after the fact. A lot of people wanted it to be a lot of different things, but if you look at what Cousins wanted it to be, it makes a lot more sense.
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Hey Vico I understand completely that this was the Ben Cousins story from a doco point of view, that's the way he started it and it might have been railroaded/marketed down a more moral path, but I was referring to the wider discussion including the AFL participation, the post doco discussion panel including his father and the maker of the doco where they were hoping for a wider impact than just "This is Ben's story". I just wish we'd refer to Gary Ablett at some stage....from the point of view that Ben is not unique in AFL let alone in life, there are all shapes and sizes of these kinds of problems (alcohol, drugs etc.). I just reckon it's great to talk about these things openly in the community, rather than pretend it's not happening, or be the proud keepers of secrets.
- Jun 23, 2008
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Bryan Cousins said in as many words that his son's situation was unprecedented at AFL level during the post-doco interview on Thursday night. And the way the media has covered it and the AFL has treated it, you'd never know that people like Laurence Angwin or (rightly mentioned) Gary Ablett Snr ever struggled with substance abuse in the past.
I'm not actually expecting them to make The Laurence Angwin Story, as Channel Seven have commercial responsibilities, and there'd probably be a fair few casual footy fans who don't even remember him, so it wouldn't be a viable project in that sense. My point was that they (Cousins and family, as well as the media and the AFL) are acting/have acted as though Cousins was the only AFL player to ever have a drug problem, when it's definitely not the case.
If they're trying to get the wider message out there that "drugs are bad" and so forth, why don't the AFL have some guts and commission their own documentary on the subject, and document some of the other careers and lives that were derailed or destroyed by drugs and alcohol, as well as helping those ex-players with their issues.
....wonder if they would talk to Dale Lewis and give him a public apology..
p.s...for those that don't know, Dale Lewis, an ex Swan, said many years ago that drugs were rife in the AFL......he was howled down and ridiculed by all and sundry..
