West Coast great David Wirrpanda, who’s in regular contact with Ben Cousins, explains how the Brownlow Medallist is doing.
“There’s probably a few of us that are on regular contact with Ben,” Wirrpanda told This is Your Sporting Life for Tobin Brothers – celebrating lives.
“He’s going through a stage of his life where it’s just not very comfortable at all I think.
“Whereas before he went into jail last time, this time he’s a little bit more aware of where he’s at which is a good thing, but we all know he needs as much support as he can get.
“He’s like family to us. He’s an example that having a drug habit doesn’t discriminate, it can touch anyone and Ben’s one of the best footballers I’ve played with, but it just goes to show it doesn’t matter who you are, it can get you.”
Wirrpanda said late in Cousins’ career, he felt something needed to be said about his behaviour.
“It was more so later in his career, there were a few signs there,” he said.
“Perth’s such a small fishbowl, you can’t get away with that stuff and you get reports coming back left, right and centre.
“It was one of those things you don’t want to turn a blind eye to and the importance of confronting someone with a habit like that is more important than what his profession is and that’s what we did early and unfortunately it’s been a big battle for him.”
Listen to David Wirrpanda's chat on This is Your Sporting Life with Peter Donegan in the player below, thanks to Tobin Brothers: