Alison Fan will tonight broadcast an interview she has conducted with John Kizon regarding Ben Cousins.

The interview was conducted at a wake in a Subiaco restaurant recently after the funeral of Craig Christian's father. No doubt a fine crowd of upstanding citizens turned out to farewell Craig's old man. I'm sure he spent the last half of his life revelling in the antics of his son and his associates. He must have been a top bloke to produce a piece of excrement like that and I would like to pay final tribute to him. Well done sir! He sets a fine example to all would-be killers thugs and drug dealers.

I wonder if it was a religious service? I've never had anything but contempt for a church that can welcome and take support from organised criminals and drug dealers, but hey! hypocrisy has long been their hallmark hasn't it?

What Kizon could possibly add to this saga is beyond me. I have heard shorts from the broadcast in which he rails at the Eagles for not providing sufficient guidance and help. Yet, here is a man with his record of criminal activity and drug dealing, spouting forth on the subject. What a laugh.

He may be right in his suggestion that the Eagles didn't do enough for Ben, but as someone else has said, what did Kizon do for him - his friend? I can guess what he did. Probably put him in contact with someone who could provide a ready source to feed his addiction.

We need some good old Melbourne Underbelly blood-letting here and I would delight at the prospect of seeing the likes of Christian, Kizon and various bikie and ethnic gang leaders wiped clean off the face of the planet. If some hangers on get hurt in the process well, such is the price you pay for not picking your friends more wisely.

Much talk about whether to boo Chris Judd tonight. I am really surprised at the amount of angst amongst fellow Eagle supporters about whether they should boo or not.

These guys are cattle. You could be the most loyal player of a club but if they choose to trade you or dump you, they do so. How many loyal servants of the club would we have dumped if that was what it took to get hold of Chris Judd in the first place?

There will be booing and it will be good natured booing at worst. I won't boo. I won't cheer or clap him either, but I won't boo him. He is an extraordinary person and player, and I carry no grudge that he left us - only disappointment. We should remember that had he not re-signed with us, we could have lost him two years earlier.

As an Eagles member, I have to say this has not been a great year. 

Ben Cousins.

To me it is just a tragedy to see someone lose control of his life like this. Unlike some of the behaviour of people off the rails, he's only done physical harm to himself. On a secondary level, certainly he's hurt his family. At a further distance, he's hurt the club and it's supporters. Frankly, I don't really give a toss about that. I just think it is so sad to see someone lose so much. To see so much potential laid to waste. To see good people close to him having to deal with such pain.

Now Ben has gone and I think the club were right to cut him from the player list. The press conference they held last night was all about supporting Ben (if he wishes their help) in overcoming his problems. It was made clear however that he will never play for the club again.

The one thing that really irritates me about this is that there are small-minded people who form their opinions based on club loyalties. Smug and superior is fine until you open the closet door of your club and perhaps see some lesser profile player with similar issues. They are out there. They are out there in real life too and I doubt that there are many people who have not been touched by the pain of drug abuse in their personal lives, or sadly - will be.

This is an issue that transcends a bloody game and Western Australia is suffering a pandemic of drug taking. It needs to be dealt with. Forget the footy.

Anyway, back to the simple little message I was originally going to give before I digressed:

Out of the tragic end to what was left of Ben Cousin's self respect this week, comes the opportunity for people to blog incessantly on the West Australian's web site. A number of people put many different spins on this saga. One comment that caught my eye (who don't they catch both your eyes?) was this post:



 At first I thought it may have been used in jest and might even have been a quote, but I can find no reference to it on Google. I think that what Susan lacks in literary depth is more than adequately compensated for by her numeracy skills.

It had to happen sometime. We haven't lost a real game of football since early last September and today that happy record came to an end. It is hard for Eagles supporters to accept defeat but hey, it had to happen sometime. 

Not all is lost. There is hope that I may take some comfort from the remaining weekend's games.

I parked at my usual City of Perth parking spot yesterday and was about to head into the office when I caught sight of the bumper sticker on the car next to me. 

"Go Tigers! Hull City FC"

The things you see... 

I left a note on his (her?) windscreen and told them that it was my team too and that I had lived on The Boulevard off Hessle Road. I mentioned that mine was the car next door and that I supported the Eagles here in Australia. That much would have been obvious as my licence plate is WCE1601. 

When I returned to my car last night, the note was under my windscreen and the writer of the reply told me that in Hull they had lived around Analaby Common and Chants Avenue. 

"Go Tigers!" the note reads and "We are Dockers over here! ... Someone has to! G'day mate".

What to make of this? I suppose firstly, that it is a small world indeed and secondly, that you can always find common ground with anybody - you just have to be interested enough to look for it.

West Coast's Selwood charged by AFL tribunal
16th April 2007, 19:00 WST
Des Headland and Adam Selwood's heated clash in the western derby on Saturday night will have an explosive postscript on Tuesday night at the AFL tribunal.

AFL investigations officer Bill Kneebone has charged West Coast's Selwood with insulting language towards Fremantle's Headland in the third term of the match.

Fremantle took the unusual step of asking the AFL to investigate the matter.

"The incident has been referred directly to the Tribunal for its determination on the matter and the player is not able to enter an early plea," the league said in a statement.

The following is a considered opinion. I don't believe it is tainted by bias, though I no doubt may well be accused of such. All I can do is plead that my integrity should allow me to be judged on face value in the matter.

Football is a rugged, tough game. Okay, perhaps not so rugged any more but it is no place for the feint hearted. Sledging is an Australian sporting tradition. I personally dislike it and see it as something rather childish and when it has been used on me it is futile. It doesn't work because I know why it is used and I also know that saying something has no bearing on my own self-image. 

Des Headland has come through the ranks of football at all levels. He has faced it all I'm sure - including racial vilification. yet here is a man who went out during his football playing career and got a tattoo of his daughter on his arm. Does it say on his arm "This is my daughter"? Did he expect that because he got this done it wouldn't draw attention to himself? To another player it would appear to be just a tattoo of a female. 

Whatever was said (and it appears there is going to be considerable debate about it) should be seen in the light of football sledging and ignorance of what it represents. 

Des Headland is an overrated player who was picked up at great cost by the Dockers. He has never lived up to expectations - mainly because he isn't that good. He simply looked good in a premiership team but he was always a passenger looking for the easy possession. Now he has to work at his game and I think the pressure is telling on him.

I can't believe that Selwood has been charged with using insulting language. What is becoming of the game? Just how precious is it becoming?

As I said, any sledging seems like a waste of good oxygen to me and the users of it just seem rather silly, but Selwood denies that this is what was said and now the AFL have thrown their lot in as well so God knows what sort of outcome we are going to get. I can't even believe that there could be such a charge as using insulting language, unless it is geared towards racial slurs. Believe me, this is very dangerous ground for the AFL to tread. What is acceptable/unacceptable?

"I slept with your mother, she reckons I'm better in bed than you"

"Your girlfriend is a fatty. She should be out here working it off. At least she'd play a better game than you."

"That's an interesting looking birthmark on your wife's upper thigh."

Are we now going to let the AFL determine what are acceptable insults? 

All this is coming from the team that were sounding off last week that they were going to sledge Daniel Kerr and others. What a bunch of precious little sooks they are. 

If Selwood did utter those words such as "who is the slut on your arm'? then it is a nasty sure, but it may not be what was said, or may have been said with no knowledge that the tattoo represented anyone in particular. That any of this has anything to do with the AFL indecision-makers though is highly debatable. 

Time will tell if this is to be a defining moment in football. I hope not.

Hull City let me down last night, losing to Norwich in a game that had they won, would have almost ensured that they would avoid relegation. As it is now, it will continue to be a week by week proposition for them.

Very shortly I am off the the Eagles game for the first of my 2007 home games. I hope they play better than Hull City and as Gruntsplatter suggested, perhaps Hull City would have trouble beating the Eagles playing soccer. That was a tad harsh though, as Hull City have achieved a lot in the past three years. Four seasons ago they were faced with relegation from the league to the non-league competitions but they got back on track and then they rocked up to the Championship division by gaining promotion in consecutive seasons. So Grunt! Give the lads a break!