Bad boys of the AFL
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Date Posted:
August-20-2010 15:31
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Ben Cousins retired from AFL this week. Although he’s cited as the sport’s poster boy for bad behaviour, many of his peers have also had their share of indiscretions. Here are six of the sport's worst offenders.
Ben Cousins
The former skipper of the West Coast Eagles and 2005 Brownlow Medallist has been linked to WA underworld figures, was fined in 2006 for abandoning his car to escape a booze bus, and later that year was arrested for public intoxication outside Melbourne’s Crown Casino.
It’s no surprise 2006 was also the year he stepped down as Eagles skipper. Probably a good idea, as he wasn’t really a great influence on the team. For instance, in 2002 he punched teammate Daniel Kerr at a function, after which Kerr pushed him down some stairs, resulting in a broken arm for Cousins.
He sought treatment in America in 2007 for substance abuse, only to be busted months later in WA for drugs possession. The Eagles sacked him and the AFL banned him from playing for a year.
Cousins was picked up by Richmond in 2009. He had a health scare earlier this year after a bad reaction to prescribed sleeping pills and, this week, he retired from the game. A TV show documenting his battle with drugs will air later this month.
Gary Ablett, Sr.
The Hall of Famer nicknamed “God” has a list of achievements as long as a goal post and was voted by Club members as being Geelong’s all-time greatest player.
Aloof during his playing days, he couldn’t avoid the media spotlight in 2000 when a 19-year-old Geelong woman OD’d on heroin, ecstasy and amphetamines and died in his hotel room. He later admitted to doing lines of heroin with the woman hours prior to her death. Ablett, who had a drug history, pled guilty to four drug offences and was fined $1500.
Sex, drugs and a little footy on the side...