Ain't Misbehavin'

As is the case this time of year, university has taken over my life, with mid-semester exams leaving me a slave to the desk. Thankfully, these are done and dusted so we can get onto the more important things in life.

Recently, Dad and I were watching the Ben Cousins' doco on his drug abuse problems. Afterwards, when discussing the saga, we were both struggling to work out why people are claiming that he's such a hero for beating his addiction. Also, we both agreed that it's unlikely that he's changed at all and still has the smug arrogance about him.

My dad is a psychology teacher and student counsellor at a public high school. It's clear that, at times, he is personally affected by what he's witnessed, particularly in relation to drug use. It's at this point I feel particularly humbled (being privately schooled and living in a high-income suburb) because the conditions that these students live in manifests this behaviour. Often, they live between divorced parents, experience abuse or mix with the wrong peers.



Ben Cousins hasn't had this problem. He was born in Geelong to an AFL footballer. He lived a fairly sheltered life, went to a private school and was drafted at a young age. It is true that he mixed with some fairly shady characters (suspected links with the Perth underworld, for example) but his drug seeking behaviour was largely his own choice. In fact, it was confirmed in his documentary that taking drugs was his 'reward' for good performance. It's clear though that it's a far cry from the conditions some young people live in.

In his documentary, he makes himself look like a victim, someone who was not responsible for his behaviour. One minute he had control of his addiction, then it would rampage out of control again. Cousins became a slave to his own personal demons; the pressure of being  Brownlow Medallist, premiership captain and being rated as one of the best of all time was clearly beginning to get to him.

Time and again, the media brings up the issue of whether footballers should be role models for younger people. But I don't think there is any doubt about it. These men are thrust into the spotlight through AFL, which is played by thousands of kids around the country. They have no say in the matter, kids are going to look up to them and try to model themselves on their favourite player.

The same can be said of Tom Boonen in the cycling world. Boonen is treated like rock start celebrities in Belgium and apparently, he dabbles a bit in the rockstar lifestyle as well. Having tested positive to cocaine twice. The key difference is that Tom Boonen has been caught using and now has had his problem recognised in an official capacity by the sporting world. Ben Cousins was never caught, so for him, the problem never became real.

Now, it must be said, the majority of footballers aren't the sharpest tools in the shed (I would highly doubt Brendan Fevola, for example, would be able to add up the number of goals he's kicked over a season). But, nevertheless, they can often find themselves the apple of many children's eyes by the time they are 19 or 20 years old. This is worrying and, to date, has been handled grossly inadequately by the AFL. Whilst players are taught how to conduct themselves in front of the media, the AFL thinks that they can build a player's good image by immersing them in philanthropic work. In no way am I against this (in fact, it is a great initiative), but what they should be doing is giving players leadership training courses, helping them build their personal skills.

Thankfully, not all players are like Ben Cousins. Cousins' teammate, Daniel Jackson, for instance, is studying Commerce at the University of Melbourne, former Kangaroos and Dockers player Peter Bell is a lawyer. These two are amongst an increasing amount of AFL players taking up tertiary studies part time. Its here, in education, that the AFL should be focusing a lot more of its attention.

Unfortunately, we cannot go back and stop Ben Cousins doing what he did. Much still needs to be explained, mostly by himself, as to why he did it. However, the AFL needs to put in place more preventative measures and be more proactive than reactive. For instance, they deregistered Cousins for bringing the game into disrepute but did they actually do anything to help his health and well being? The AFL should be encouraging players in any way to further their education outside the game. So, for once, Adrian Anderson, instead of changing the rules this summer, please PLEASE put your time to better use and help our game's greatest assets, the players, become better people.