Interesting article on Ben Cousins

[giant]

I totally agree, yes please do tell it to the children, teach them that you (their parents) are their role models, not a bloke who they have never met, but happens to play good football.

It is called good parenting !

Sadly, they've seen my left foot passing & know I can't kick it over a jam jar anymore.

[Lucky Knickers]

Whether or not he deserves the sack for what happened is the crux of the issue, IMO. My personal view is that workers deserve some reciprocal loyalty after being employed in a place for a while and doing their job well, and support while they're going through something rather horrible should be readily available.

I understand entirely why others don't agree, but my own view is that he deserves more compassion than seems to be around at the moment.

Gees, I think he's being shown an incredible amount of compassion by his club. Suspended on full pay, after consistently breaching the conditions of his employment.

[ROK Lobster]

So, footballers should be allowed to ply their skills as long as they are capable of being in the team's best 20.

And such has been the philosophy of the Eagles - or has it.

The above is certainly a sustainable position but what the WCE have realised that there is another factor, the damage being done to the other 21 while Benny was being bent. Until now, Benny's brilliance has kept him in the side. Now it seems his bent ways are disrupting the team to the point where the disruption he causes outweighs the benefit he brings. The result, bye, bye Benny.

In so many ways, this is the same as the Davis saga last year. Benny's transgressions far exceed Nick's but Benny plays in a side that relies on its brilliant midfield much more than Sydney relies on Davis' inconsistent brilliance. Dare I suggest it, I do not think that Hall would have had 6 weeks out for inappropriate comments in a newspaper, or Goodes or Kirk* - don't forget, the players know they will be treated differently at Sydney. Benny has tipped the balance. It may not be that WCE have changed their approach at all, it may just be that from a Sydney perspective, Benny was let be bad for too long. Yet on a very crude cost/benefit analysis, his last game was a very good one and I reckon that they would have been unlikely to win it without him. WCE may have timed their run to perfection?

*Not that Davis stint in the reserves was purely ponitive. Part of it was fitness - he came back too early from the hamstring (spirit of the bloods). It was also compounded by past convictions which, imo was fair enough. Geelong advertiser guy likes to opine on the topic of spent convictions, but respect and trust must be part of any team, and prior indiscretions against that team and its ethos will affect that, and rightly so.

[16.SFC]

Tell that to the children.

Must be a tough gig explaining to little Jimmy why Benny won't be playing for the Eagles this year.

No need to explain anything ... one of my darling cherubs was able to recite every one of BBB's indiscretions without hesitation ... and in chronological order too!

[Sanecow]

The above is certainly a sustainable position but what the WCE have realised that there is another factor, the damage being done to the other 21 while Benny was being bent. Until now, Benny's brilliance has kept him in the side. Now it seems his bent ways are disrupting the team to the point where the disruption he causes outweighs the benefit he brings. The result, bye, bye Benny.

I don't think he's that much more disruptive than this time last year. I think it's more that last year they let it slide because the Premiership window only opens for so long. Now they have a Premiership, the urgency and desperation to succeed has waned to the point where they feel they can clean house a little without getting @@@@ canned by the fans.

[giant]

No need to explain anything ... one of my darling cherubs was able to recite every one of BBB's indiscretions without hesitation ... and in chronological order too!

We've always referred to him as "Big Barry" in our house so when the kiddies overheard him called "Big Bad Barry" it took some explaining. We were able to show how the Spirit of the Bloods had sent him on the straight & narrow and what a salutary lesson it was for us all.

May have been easier to take your route & just talk them thru the legend blow by gouge.