Cousins attacks scurrilous

There are some sections of the media that simply don’t understand the bounds of decency. A Channel 7 ‘reporter’ in Perth, granted limited access to Ben Cousins following his arrest in Esperance, decided to flout that agreement in a pretty blatant quest to generate a reaction from Cousins. And she got one, good and proper.

 

Similarly, one of Rupert’s right-wing attack dogs decides to ascend to his lofty perch of moral high ground and pontificate that Cousins deserves no sympathy.

 

We wish everyone could have been listening to radio SEN just prior to the start of the Hawthorn-Barcodes game. Rohan Connolly gave a full broadside to both the 7 hack and the attack dog, holding nothing back and relating his own first-hand experiences of substance abuse and addiction. It was breathtaking stuff.

 

Dermott Brereton backed Connolly up to the hilt, relating his own close experiences with despair.

 

Long-time readers will be aware that AussieRulesBlog strongly supported Cousins’ rehabilitation through football. On the same SEN radio broadcast, former Richmond assistant coach David king spoke in almost reverential tones of Cousins’ effect on the struggling Richmond list.

 

It’s always easy to pillory those who struggle with substance addiction. An addictive personality isn’t an attractive trait, but it’s also often not something the afflicted can just turn on or off. AussieRulesBlog has experience of addiction. We were addicted to smoking for more than twenty years. We had times when we did really silly things just to satisfy our craving. We are lucky that it was a legal substance.

 

Everyone knew that post-football was going to be Cousins’ biggest trial, and so it has proved. The structures and support and involvement of football were always Cousins’ best bulwark against a return to substance abuse. For so-called ‘journalist's’ to take the easy, moralist and populist route of tearing him a new one is more than disappointing and it’s well past time these people got off their moral high horses and tried to understand.