Ben Cousins

Cousins' father Bryan played 238 games for Perth in the WAFL and 67 games for Geelong in the VFL during the 1970s and 1980s.

Geelong's recruiting manager, Stephen Wells, said, "Ben barracked for Geelong and we tried everything to get him here."

Benjamin Luke Cousins (born 30 June 1978 ) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for and in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Cousins is listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as one of the fifty greatest players of all time.

During his 12-year, 238-game career with West Coast, he won several of the league's highest individual awards, including a Brownlow Medal, Most Valuable Player and a premiership medallion.

He was also selected six times in the All-Australian Team and represented Australia in the International Rules Series.

He was West Coast's club champion for four seasons and captain for five seasons.

Cousins' football career was marred by highly publicised off-field incidents involving illegal recreational drug use, traffic convictions and association with criminal elements.

Cousins was born in Geelong, Victoria, in 1978, to Stephanie and Bryan, an Australian rules footballer who had moved from Western Australia to play for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League.

When Cousins was 18 months old, his family moved back to Perth, Western Australia, where he was raised with younger siblings Matthew, Sophie and Melanie.

He played junior football for the Bull Creek-Leeming Junior Football Club and for his private school, Wesley College.

In his last year at Wesley in 1995, he was recruited to join the East Fremantle Football Club's senior side in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and played for both his school and East Fremantle throughout the season.

While Cousins was still at school, three AFL teams competed to draft him under the father–son rule: the Geelong Football Club, the West Coast Eagles, and the newly formed Fremantle Football Club.

However, Cousins preferred to remain based in Western Australia and chose West Coast in October 1995.

At 17, a week after his tenth WAFL game for East Fremantle, Cousins played his first AFL match and kicked two goals for West Coast against Geelong.

He won the Norwich Rising Star award for his debut season in 1996, polling 15 votes from the six judges to beat Shannon Grant by one point.

Cousins' popularity continued to increase over the following seasons.

In 1998, the Herald Sun ran a two-page article across its centre pages about 20-year-old Cousins, titled "West goes wild for the kid".

The article portrayed Cousins as a sex symbol and "football's answer to Brad Pitt".

When asked about the article, he said the popularity "comes with the territory... If you want to be a league footballer you have to accept that it is part of the game."

Sports agent Ricky Nixon approached Cousins in 1998 about managing his endorsement deals, because "He's good-looking, he elected to stay in Perth and not play in Victoria, opposition coaches take notice of him and on top of that he's a future leader."

In 1998, Cousins was selected in the All-Australian Team and was runner-up in West Coast's Best and Fairest.

In 1999, International Management Group, who managed sports stars such as Tiger Woods and Pete Sampras, said they would like to sign Ben, as "There is no doubt that he is now in the top bracket of players and has great marketing potential... Apart from being an outstanding footballer, he is a quality young man."

Ross Nicholas, West Coast's marketing manager, said:

"'He's easily the most sought-after Eagle... No player was, or is, as popular as Ben. His appeal is so diverse. Kids want his autograph and photograph. Sponsors want him to sit next to them. They want him to push their product... If Ben's well managed, the sky's the limit for him... They've got to find the balance between his commercial potential and his contribution to the community. The club offers protection, but it's up to Ben what demands he puts himself under.'"

He played in his first AFL finals game in 1999, against the Western Bulldogs in a qualifying final at the MCG, and the year included another selection in the All-Australian Team and representing Australia in the International Rules Series.

In 2000, Cousins signed a new three-year contract with the West Coast Eagles, reportedly worth nearly A$1 million.

In 2001, Cousins was named co-captain, sharing the role with Dean Kemp.

He won his first club Best and Fairest at the end of the season, a feat which he repeated in 2002 and 2003, and he was again named in the All-Australian Team in 2001 and 2002.

Kemp's retirement saw Cousins become the captain in 2002, a role he filled until 2006.

On several occasions he was fined or sanctioned by West Coast, culminating in the termination of his contract in October 2007.

The following month, he was banned from AFL for one year by the AFL Commission for "bringing the game into disrepute".

Amid predictions that he would remain undrafted, Richmond claimed Cousins with the last pick of the 2008 draft.

He played 32 games across two seasons at the club, retiring from the AFL at the end of the 2010 season.

Cousins co-produced a documentary film titled Such is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins, saying he hoped it would serve as a cautionary tale against drug use.

Released days after his retirement, it was "one of the most-watched documentaries in Australian history."

He played his 100th game amid speculation he would take over the captaincy from Guy McKenna, who was due to retire after the same game.

Cousins said, "After you play two or three seasons, you think of the possibility of a leadership role down the track, but the talk of it has certainly come a lot earlier than I would have thought."

Post-football, Cousins continued to struggle with his drug addiction and have run-ins with the law, and in 2017 he received a 12-month prison sentence for a variety of offences.

In 2023, after beating his addictions, Cousins joined the Seven News team in Perth where he reads the morning news sports bulletin and is emerging as one of the city’s leading sports reporters.