Benjamin Luke Cousins (born 30 June 1978) is an Australian former professional Australian rules footballer and media presenter. He played 270 games for the West Coast and Richmond in the Australian Football League (AFL) between 1996 and 2010, captained West Coast from 2001 to 2005, won the 2005 Brownlow Medal as the league's best and fairest player, and was a member of West Coast's 2006 premiership side. Cousins is listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as one of the fifty greatest players of all time.
Cousins's playing career was overshadowed by a long-running substance abuse problem, principally involving methamphetamine. He was sacked by West Coast in October 2007 after being arrested for drug possession and the following month was banned by the AFL Commission for 12 months for "bringing the game into disrepute". After being selected by Richmond with the sixth pick of the 2009 pre-season draft he played 32 games across two seasons, retiring at the end of the 2010 season. His addiction was the subject of the 2010 documentary Such is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins, which aired shortly after his retirement and was one of the year's most-watched programs in Australia.
In the decade following his retirement, Cousins was convicted of a series of criminal offences against the mother of his two children. In March 2017 he was sentenced at Perth Magistrates Court to 12 months' imprisonment after pleading guilty to eleven offences, including aggravated stalking, multiple breaches of a violence restraining order, and possession of methamphetamine; Magistrate Richard Huston described the conduct as "persistent, sustained and intended". He served the sentence at Acacia Prison and was released in January 2018. In November 2020, following a further arrest in April that year, he was convicted of aggravated stalking of the same complainant and sentenced to seven months' imprisonment backdated to his arrest. Australian Associated Press reported at the time that Cousins had accumulated 22 convictions for breaches of restraining orders, 20 of which had resulted in prison sentences.
Since 2023 Cousins has rebuilt a career in Perth media. In June 2023 he began presenting sport for 7NEWS Morning Edition; he appeared as a contestant on the 2024 season of Dancing with the Stars Australia, and in February 2025 joined the Hit Network's Perth breakfast show Pete & Kymba with Ben Cousins on Mix 94.5.
Cousins was born in Geelong, Victoria, on 30 June 1978, to Stephanie and Bryan, an Australian rules footballer who had moved from Western Australia to play for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League. 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.
1996–1997: Rising Star Award and increasing popularity
At 17, a week after his tenth WAFL game for East Fremantle, Cousins played his first AFL match and kicked two goals for West Coast against Geelong. He won the Norwich Rising Star award for his debut season in 1996, polling 15 votes from the six judges to beat Shannon Grant by one point.
Cousins' popularity continued to increase over the following seasons. In 1998, the Herald Sun ran a two-page article across its centre pages about 20-year-old Cousins, titled "West goes wild for the kid". The article portrayed Cousins as a sex symbol and "football's answer to Brad Pitt". When asked about the article, he said the popularity "comes with the territory... If you want to be a league footballer you have to accept that it is part of the game." Sports agent Ricky Nixon approached Cousins in 1998 about managing his endorsement deals, because "He's good-looking, he elected to stay in Perth and not play in Victoria, opposition coaches take notice of him and on top of that he's a future leader." In 1999, International Management Group, who managed sports stars such as Tiger Woods and Pete Sampras, said they would like to sign Ben, as "There is no doubt that he is now in the top bracket of players and has great marketing potential... Apart from being an outstanding footballer, he is a quality young man." Ross Nicholas, West Coast's marketing manager, said:
"He's easily the most sought-after Eagle... No player was, or is, as popular as Ben. His appeal is so diverse. Kids want his autograph and photograph. Sponsors want him to sit next to them. They want him to push their product... If Ben's well managed, the sky's the limit for him... They've got to find the balance between his commercial potential and his contribution to the community. The club offers protection, but it's up to Ben what demands he puts himself under."
1997–2000: First finals appearance and first All-Australian selection
In 1998, Cousins was selected in the All-Australian Team and was runner-up in West Coast's Best and Fairest. He played in his first AFL finals game in 1997 against the Adelaide Crows in a qualifying final at Football Park, and the year included another selection in the All-Australian Team and representing Australia in the International Rules Series. In 2000, Cousins signed a new three-year contract with the West Coast Eagles, reportedly worth nearly A$1 million.
2000–2003: Best and Fairest at West Coast and appointed co-captain
He played his 100th game amid speculation he would take over the captaincy from Guy McKenna, who was due to retire after the same game. Cousins said, "After you play two or three seasons, you think of the possibility of a leadership role down the track, but the talk of it has certainly come a lot earlier than I would have thought." In 2001, Cousins was named co-captain, sharing the role with Dean Kemp. He won his first club Best and Fairest at the end of the season, a feat which he repeated in 2002 and 2003, and he was again named in the All-Australian Team in 2001 and 2002. Kemp's retirement saw Cousins become the captain in 2002, a role he filled until 2006. In 2005, West Coast coach John Worsfold said of Cousins' fifth year as captain, "Ben is improving all the time and with the way this group is coming along, I think he is going to be a great leader".
2003–2004: Continued individual success and injuries
In early 2003, Cousins injured his ankle in a game against Hawthorn but played on through five weeks of pain-killing injections. In Round 15, 2004, he injured his back and missed six games. Cousins said, "That injury is something that I got over and am probably no chance of getting a relapse... The other side to it is, because I have played 10 years of consistent AFL footy, I've probably got an older back than someone my age". In Round 1, 2005, he dislocated a finger and missed one round after undergoing an operation. West Coast chief executive Trevor Nesbitt said, "There's no doubt that he's at his best when under pressure and he's so resilient; he plays with injuries that other players wouldn't".
2004–2006: Brownlow Medal and Grand Final berth
After Cousins played his 200th game in July 2005 he was given a "rousing reception from 41,524 grateful fans", as video clips of his ten years at West Coast were shown at the end of the game. Cousins was "possibly the highest-profile sportsman in Western Australia", the youngest of the 10 West Coast players to reach 200 games and the 14th youngest in the history of the AFL/VFL.