The Wild Wild West Arrogance

Senior Player Arrogance, Underworld links, Drug and Alcohol abuse, bad language in public places. That sums up the West Coast Eagles.

The Internal Inquiry into the West Coast Eagles off field behaviour has been made public. After reading the report it certainly highlighted to me the arrogance that is widely associated with the West Coast Eagles Football Club. The Eagles are well known for their reputation off the field both here and overseas and in particular Ben Cousins, as you can read here and also here. The Eagles now have a very bad reputation and I can’t see them breaking that any time soon.

The senior leadership group which would have included Ben Cousins, Michael Gardiner, Chad Fletcher, and Daniel Kerr had a lot of influence over the rest of the playing group at the time and should have pulled into line much sooner than they were. 35 separate incidents (involving 13 players) which were highlighted as matters of poor off-field behaviour. Including links between players and underworld figures, assaults, drug and alcohol abuse and inappropriate language in public. It also revealed poor behaviour by two Eagles players during drug tests last year and poor behaviour by some players during AFL education sessions.Yet the Eagles board and coaching staff seemed to have tried to sweep these under the carpet to some extent. They were performing well on the field and I don’t think they wanted to mess with that. As we have seen recently if clubs fail to act in appropriate manner and let these players basically get a way with it then things can get ugly just ask North Melbourne and Wayne Carey who was given basically a free reign at the time. Read more

Ben Cousins to Fight as un Undercard at Mundine’s Next Fight

Disgraced AFL Footballer Ben Cousins has spoken for the first time since his latest drug related antics and it has been announced at the annual “KO To Drugs” Press Conference that Ben Cousins will have an exhibition fight on the undercard at Mundine’s next fight on February 27. Cousins spoke briefly and said that he has lost his livelihood because of his drug problem. And yes he is still sporting that unbuttoned white shirt !

Here is a little bit of what he said:

“I am not going to be the first footballer to be in this position,” Cousins said. “

Australian Rules footballers aren’t the only ones using recreational drugs.”

There are already people being thrown up as potential opponents, here are a few that are circulating - Daniel Kerr, Wayne Carey, Andrew Demetriou, Josh Carr and any Western Australian Police Officer. Maybe Willie Mason could be the one if he stills wants to fight an AFL Player or in this case ex player.

I am sure there will be more potential opponents thrown up in the coming days.

You can read the full transcript here on FOX SPORTS if you are interested.

Watch this space with interest……

West Coast Eagles - Life after Judd and Cousins

The West Coast Eagles Football Club will undoubtedly want to erase the year 2007 from the books, not from a on field perspective but certainly from an off field one. We all know of the turmoil surrounding the Eagles in 07 so there is no need to go through it all again. I will though mention that the Eagles are doing their best to try and turn the culture around over there by instilling a new leadership group, but it doesn’t seem to be having much of an impact if you take into account the recent incident with their number one draft pick Chris Masten.

Let’s go thorough the arrivals and departures for the Eagles:

ADDITIONS:

Exchange period – received: Josh J. Kennedy (Carlton)
Rookie elevation: Chad Jones, Jamie McNamara
Scholarship elevation: Ryan Davis (rookie)
NAB AFL Draft: Brad Ebert (Port Adelaide Magpies), Chris Masten (East Fremantle), Tony Notte (Swan Districts), Scott Selwood (Bendigo Pioneers)

DELETIONS:

Retired: Rowan Jones, Josh Wooden
Exchange period – traded: Chris Judd (Carlton), Mitch Morton (Richmond)
Delisted: Daniel Chick, Ashley Sampi, Ben Sharp (rookie), Llane Spaanderman (rookie), Ashley Thornton (rookie), Beau Wilkes (rookie)

The West Coast Eagles had a very good year on field considering all the other dramas they had. Finishing 3rd and losing to Collingwood by 19 points in the Second Semi Final. A disappointing exit considering that game was at Subiaco. The have certainly got some quality losses to cover and any team that loses player of the calibre of Jud and Cousins you would think would struggle. The big question is can the others step up to the plate and take the reigns? The likes of Kerr, Embley, Priddis, Fletcher and Stenglein are the players that will need to create havoc in the middle.

Best Ruckman in the AFL

With the best Ruckman in the business in Dean Cox and being the 3rd best team in terms of hit outs these players will no doubt get their hand on the pill first on a lot of occasions. Priddis has already shown he is a quality player that can find the ball with ease (leading disposal getter) I reckon he just needs to be more damaging when he gets it. Kerr is a GUN, his ability to stand his ground when being tackled and get the ball to a team mate is brilliant and he will have to be the take the Number 1 midfield role you would think. The Eagles have at least 10-11 players they could rotate through there, and when you look at the stats from 2007 there were 11 players that averaged more than 20 possessions a game! With Mark Seaby having a great pre season the midfield of the Eagles is looking dangerous even with out Cousins and Judd. Read more

West Coast Eagles Player Does it Again

The start of a new year and nothing has changed over in the West. What is the go over there? This time their prized first Draft Pick Chris Masten was issued with a “move on” order from police at the Australia Day Skyworks celebration on the Perth foreshore on Saturday night. The Club has said they are very disappointed. I think they may be a bit more than disappointed , after all they have been trying to do over there to reverse the “culture issues” and then their first year draft pick goes and does something silly like this then they would be fuming!

It will be interesting to see how the Eagles handle this one, with all that is made of double standards in football clubs at the moment how will the new Eagles Leadership Team handle this one?

Watch that one with interest.

Loophole in the AFL decision and Ben Cousins may play in 2008

In the never ending saga that is Ben Cousins, the AFL Commission yesterday announced a 12 month ban for Cousins, but this is not an Australian wide ban. Therefore we could see Cousins playing in 2008 in the WAFL, VFL or SANFL. I read today that his WAFL club East Fremantle would consider letting Cousins play if he was “well enough and playing was part of his rehab”.

This has to be a no brainer surely ! What club would pass up the opportunity have Ben Cousins play next year if he is fit enough to play. Alot of experts have said that he may be better off out of WA and out of the spotlight. I am sure the VFL and SANFL teams would be queing up to get the signature of Cousins.

Given that the commission found Cousins guilty of bringing the game into disrepute, I am still yet to see anthing from the AFL that outlines what evidence or which indiscretion or number of indiscretions they had taken into account to get to the verdict.

Furthermore we then have Mike Fitzpatrick coming out and saying that he is not sure that Cousins had damaged the game. I find this crazy that a commissioner can say this and then come out and ban him from the AFL for 12 months.

Do you think the AFL Commission got this right?