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Benjamin Luke "Ben" Cousins (born 30 June 1978) is a former Australian rules footballer, best known for his 270-game career with and in the Australian Football League (AFL). Cousins is listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as one of the top 50 players of all time. During his twelve years 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 recreational drug use, traffic convictions and association with criminal elements. On several occasions he was fined or sanctioned by the West Coast Eagles, culminating in his contract's termination on 17 October 2007. On 19 November 2007, he was banned from AFL for one year by the AFL Commission for "bringing the game into disrepute". He was cleared to return to football in 2009 and was drafted by the Richmond Football Club on 16 December 2008. He retired from the game at the end of the 2010 season. ==Early life== Cousins was born in Geelong in 1978, to Stephanie and Bryan, a former player for the Geelong Football Club. 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. 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."〔 However, Cousins preferred to remain based in Western Australia and chose West Coast in October 1995. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ben Cousins」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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