Make room for Ben Cousins?

[duckduckduckgoose]

All this talk of offering up some of our highest paid players has got me thinking about what's going to happen to Vanilla Ice next year?

my view on Cousins is probably shared by most- absolute failure of a human being BUT a 100% certified, proven champion footballer.

I think if the St Kilda FC is seriously in the business of winning football games and premierships- we must look at making room in our salary cap to have a crack at Cousins.

Apparentely we are number 1 on the list (equal with collingwood and excluding lions and sydney) with player payments this year, and i'd much rather be spending that money on a PROVEN champion than the long discussed POTENTIAL champions we have.

The problem being, i'm pretty sure all our big name players are under contract for at least the next couple of years (?) but hypothetically, I would get over the loss of a Dal or Kosi if it brought us a player of Cousins calibre.

discuss.

[Sobraz]

absolute joke... topping up at its worst... he'd be what, 31, 32???
WOFTAM....

[st.byron]

absolute joke... topping up at its worst... he'd be what, 31, 32???
WOFTAM....

disagree Sobraz. Was an absolute gun. Gut runner like Banger. Excellent skills, hard at it. Would have at least 3 or 4 years left in him I estimate. Hated him with a passion in a WCE jumper, but would definitely go for him if available.

[St DAC]

Agree that he's been an elite player. But he'd be 30 odd, with around 2 years out of the game, and a dodgy disposition. And he and Gardiner together alarm me.

On balance, no thanks.

[SENsei]

Get Daniel Kerr, not Ben Cousins.

[saintsRrising]

We need to find more players who will play with the Armos, McEvoys and the Steven's of our future.....and not players like Cousins who would ok at best for a year or two.

Can you imagine the disruption and media frenzy at the Saints if Cousins came to the club next year???

[plumtire]

LUDICROUS!!!!!! Retain our younger players and cull the following:
Fiora, Raph Clarke, Blake, Harvey,(Let the guy retire in peace) King, Accept that we may be bottom eight for a year or two but with a CLEAR vision of where we are going!!! and recruit those youngsters for the future!!

[st_Trav_ofWA]

has anyone even got proof hes fully clean ??
hes basically living the good life at the moment going from surfing holiday to surfing holiday ... hes not even close to playing WAFL SANFL VFL footy yet we think hes going to slot straight in to an AFL team and make a huge impact

seriously the Draft is where we need to be looking not in the cast off has beens and reject pile's of other clubs

[Richter]

Pick him up in the post-season draft - the way we're going we'll have a top pick.

[duckduckduckgoose]

LUDICROUS!!!!!! Retain our younger players and cull the following:
Fiora, Raph Clarke, Blake, Harvey,(Let the guy retire in peace) King, Accept that we may be bottom eight for a year or two but with a CLEAR vision of where we are going!!! and recruit those youngsters for the future!!

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but we are already bottom 8 and have been for the last 18 months.
A big clean out would have us struggling for ANOTHER 5+ years.
who's to say any of our (few) kids are any good anyway?

I think we still have a genuine shot at a flag next year, after that get the broom out and start from scratch.

[evertonfc]

Pick him up in the post-season draft - the way we're going we'll have a top pick.

Amen to that.



Might actually provide some run...and be able to hit a target...

Target? What the heck is that?

[duckduckduckgoose]

Can you imagine the disruption and media frenzy at the Saints if Cousins came to the club next year???

maybe our boys need an effin shake up!?
most of our players look very comfortable to plod along knowing they will collect a nice big paycheck and a guaranteed game next week regardless of the effort they put in.

[evertonfc]

Can you imagine the disruption and media frenzy at the Saints if Cousins came to the club next year???

maybe our boys need an effin shake up!?

Damn effin straight.

[st_Trav_ofWA]

LUDICROUS!!!!!! Retain our younger players and cull the following:
Fiora, Raph Clarke, Blake, Harvey,(Let the guy retire in peace) King, Accept that we may be bottom eight for a year or two but with a CLEAR vision of where we are going!!! and recruit those youngsters for the future!!

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but we are already bottom 8 and have been for the last 18 months.
A big clean out would have us struggling for ANOTHER 5+ years.
who's to say any of our (few) kids are any good anyway?

I think we still have a genuine shot at a flag next year, after that get the broom out and start from scratch.

adding a drugged out player who hasnt played a match for near on two years who is at this point in time showing no real intent on becoming an AFL footballer again is not going to win us a flag next year . we need the clean out and youth up now to be competivive b4 the expantion teams arrive wasting a year chasing the flag with benny boy is going to put us up shite creek as it puts us another year behind lets be realistic we are anothe 5 years away from being a true premiership contender if we start now

[congorozides]

- we must look at making room in our salary cap to have a crack at Cousins.



discuss.

i dont think salary cap will be an issue for the ice-man. i would think IF he wants to play and IF someone wants him it will be for love not money (plus media when he retires) but im sure he will be taking a massive pay cut form his last contract.

a couple of saints can probably look at a pay cut as well... id hate to see the contracts we have at the moment - grammy comes to mind as one guy getting paid way more than he is worth right now.

anyway. would be very interesting. i dont think hes right for the saints. but pies would consider him with the malthouse connection, strong culture and youthful list. maybe the dons as well.

[congorozides]

Can you imagine the disruption and media frenzy at the Saints if Cousins came to the club next year???

what would he be disrupting??? our crap football? at least ben can play footy. run and hit targets and break tackles.

the fact he is so far better than our bottom 10 players it is just not funny. i mean look at the guys we already have on the list. raph, fizzer, blake, l fisher, ferg, macqualtar, gwilt, birss.

guys that will never be any good. and we would only need to replace one oxygen thief. JUST 1. to have a guy that can actually play the game.

having said that. hes not right for saints right now. we are re-building.

pies should take him for sure. malthouse can handle him.

[matrix]

Get Daniel Kerr, not Ben Cousins.

agreed
as much as i think he is an arrogant prick...he is a very good fooballer.

cousins will just f**k up again anyway

[Hurricane]

No doubt that Ben Cousins at his best would be a massive asset, however I belive that with his well documented problems, his age and a full year out of the game it would be a huge risk for us to pick him up.

I agree that the Pies will probably scoop him up.

BANG BANG

[evertonfc]

I agree that the Pies will probably scoop him up.

Is that because they've got the strength of culture to handle such types (Didak, Wellingham, etc) and get the best from them?

[congorozides]

I agree that the Pies will probably scoop him up.

Is that because they've got the strength of culture to handle such types (Didak, Wellingham, etc) and get the best from them?

yep. and they can probably carry another older guy on their list cos they have a quite a few youngsters.

plus the personal connection with malthouse and cousins (he used to coach him remember)

[redwhite&blackblood]

maybe our boys need an effin shake up!?
most of our players look very comfortable to plod along knowing they will collect a nice big paycheck and a guaranteed game next week regardless of the effort they put in.

This is RL's increased accountability at work, players increase their bank Accounts and give little to the club on field in return. Platers receive an ATM card upon signing their contact.

[Dan Warna]

I agree that the Pies will probably scoop him up.

Is that because they've got the strength of culture to handle such types (Didak, Wellingham, etc) and get the best from them?

ya

this is the club that has hookers in the spa, and asks their players to lie to the public when video evidence show he is clearly lying.

this is the team that tried to 'steal' a state government asset by selling the naming rights to a venue they DIDN'T HAVE ANY RIGHTS TO.

this is the team that covered up <insert court injunction> incidents.

I think if you are talking about strength of culture, and collingwood, you must be joking.

and before you bring up the milne montagna incident the club let the police to decide, handed over the players mobile phones, without 'dissapearing evidence' and were subsequently exhonerated.

Its ironic that filth fans call monty and mlney rapist when their own players are amongst and have included some of the filthiest dogs going around.

[matrix]

see, we hear f**k all of this kinda juicy gossip interstate

[Hurricane]

I agree that the Pies will probably scoop him up.

Is that because they've got the strength of culture to handle such types (Didak, Wellingham, etc) and get the best from them?

yep. and they can probably carry another older guy on their list cos they have a quite a few youngsters.

plus the personal connection with malthouse and cousins (he used to coach him remember)

That was my thinking. Malthouse has history with Cousins and an older more experianced player on their list might help ease the young guys in.

BANG BANG

[danners]

im pretty sure time out of the game doesnt effect this bloke.

had 15 weeks off and came back to rack up 38 disposals.

yeh he made mistakes and hes paying for that. if he can come back and be a changed man then i say go for it.