Cousins unlikely to return to AFL fold

My Thoughts

This guy has a problem! Why is he allowed to go back to play football?

Is he really that good? I wish these celebrities would get there act together

and think of the kids that are watching them, soaking it all in! I hated the smirk

on his face when he returned from his first time in rehab. Obviously, these rehab

places need to stop letting people out before they are really ready. However, people

make their own choices and who can stop a person from self destructing? Only themselves!

By Laine Clark   October 23, 2007 11:45am

Article from: AAP

 

BEN Cousins is unlikely to play in the AFL again, high-profile Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews says.

The Brownlow medallist was dumped by West Coast last Wednesday, a day after being charged with possessing a diazepam tablet without a prescription.

The former West Coast captain was also charged with refusing to take a driver drug test, after being pulled over for allegedly driving erratically.

On Friday, police said they made a mistake when they laid the drug charge - and they formally dropped it in Perth Magistrates Court yesterday because diazepam is prohibited only in injectable liquid form.

Matthews - a four-time AFL premiership-winning player and coach - said he could not see a way back to the AFL for the premiership-winning midfielder.

"I would say it is very unlikely, for obvious reasons," he said.

"(But) who's got a crystal ball? I'm one of 16 clubs. I can't talk for the other clubs."

Matthews said the AFL's image "obviously has" taken a battering and he could understand a parent of a potential draftee expressing concerns over the possibility of their child joining West Coast.

"The world is about perception and reality and sometimes perception is what we go on because we don't know reality," he said.

"I've got no idea what happens at the Eagles because we are not there. But you can understand that thought being expressed because the perception is something that we all have to cope with."

Cousins, 29, is expected to return to California soon for a second stint in drug rehabilitation.

Eagles chief executive Trevor Nisbett said last week that there was no chance of Cousins playing for the Eagles again.

Even if he wanted to enter the draft system, Cousins would need the permission of the AFL because he has been deregistered as a player.