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West Coast confirms Cousins suspension
12:55:00 PM Tue 20 March, 2007 | Back
Finn Bradshaw and Mic Cullen Exclusive to AFL BigPond Network
West Coast has suspended former captain Ben Cousins indefinitely for breaking team rules after he missed training on Monday.

“As a result of Ben Cousins breaching team rules, by failing to attend training yesterday, with the full endorsement from the player leadership group, the match committee, our senior coach, our CEO and the board, Ben Cousins has been suspended indefinitely from the West Coast Eagles football club," West Coast chairman Dalton Gooding said today.

Gooding did not offer any reason for Cousins' absence from training other than to say: “Ben has got a number of private and personal issues he needs to deal with. Over the past few weeks those issues have come to the surface, and it’s time that Ben was suspended from the club, to go away and try and tackle these private, personal issues head-on.

Gooding said the length of the suspension was not set. “It will depend entirely on when we believe Ben is in an appropriate condition to come back to the club, once he has overcome his private and personal issues. That may be weeks, it may be months, it may be a year."

Cousins will not be able to train with the club while suspended. This is a similar punishment to that handed out to Michael Gardiner last year before he was sacked by the club. Cousins will not be playing for his WAFL club, East Fremantle, this weekend.

Gooding said it was evidence of the club's tough stance on player behaviour. “When Daniel Kerr was fined, the board said that it would be very tough on players who breached team rules or breached the core values of the club, and this is further evidence of the stance that our board is taking against players who breach team rules and have off-field behaviour problems.”

He also revealed that Cousins was drug tested yesterday, but that the result of the test would not be know for several weeks.

Cousins, 28, was stripped of the West Coast captaincy last year after he fled from a police booze bus.

Four months ago, the 2005 Brownlow medallist was arrested in Melbourne for being drunk outside Crown Casino.

Cousins has won four West Coast best and fairest awards, is a six-time All-Australian and was voted the 2005 Most Valuable Player by the AFL Players Association.

He captained the Eagles in 104 matches from 2001-05 and is seventh on the club's games record list, with 231 games (202 goals) since 1996.