{"id":385778,"date":"2024-04-17T13:08:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T13:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=385778"},"modified":"2024-04-17T20:03:45","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T20:03:45","slug":"worried-about-ben-fevs-strange-act-that-saved-cousins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=385778","title":{"rendered":"'Worried about Ben': Fev's strange act that saved Cousins"},"content":{"rendered":"

F\ufefformer Carlton forward Brendan Fevola<\/a> has revealed he became a secret support network for struggling former West Coast Eagles star Ben Cousins<\/a> during the lowest parts of his career.<\/p>\n

Cousins' career, which included the 2005 Brownlow medal and \ufeffa premiership with the Eagles in 2006, ended controversially, being sacked by West Coast in 2007, then finishing his career at Richmond<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The six-time All-Australian\ufeff spent time behind bars after his footballing career came to a sour end.<\/p>\n

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His next years were\ufeff full of controversy, before the 45-year-old began taking steps to turn his life around, taking on television roles in Perth across 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But, before he was able to regain control of his life, Cousin\ufeffs found himself leaning on Fevola.<\/p>\n

\"Fevola<\/p>\n

At the time he didn't realise it, but Cousins quickly found out he wasn't the only one struggling behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Fevola was also dealing with his own demons off-field.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2009, Carlton traded Fevola to the Brisbane Lions<\/a>, after his antics during the Brownlow Medal that year.<\/p>\n

Fevola famously \ufeffbecame intoxicated during the event and harassed star teammate Chris Judd, with his behaviour so poor, the Blues felt they had to remove him from their club.<\/p>\n

Cousins joined Fevola on his radio show, Fox's Fifi, Fev and Nick on Tuesday, where the pair recounted how their bond formed.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

"I've never told this story in public. There was a night after one of my best mate's engagement party, (former Richmond captain) Chris Newman, and you down from Perth, and we were at Crown (Casino)," Fevola said to Cousins during his radio show, The Fox's Fifi, Fev & Nick,<\/em> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

"I was not there with Ben, but I was going upstairs to stay at Crown, and Ben hopped in the lift. I was like, 'g'day mate, how are you going?', and something had happened with your rental car, and you couldn't get to the airport, you'd missed your plane, and you said, 'can I stay with you tonight?'"<\/p>\n

Footy Classified is now available as a podcast! Subscribe\/follow via<\/strong><\/em> Apple<\/strong><\/em><\/a>,<\/strong><\/em> Spotify<\/strong><\/em><\/a> or<\/strong><\/em> Google Podcasts<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"You (Cousins) had a couple of phones, you kept taking the battery \ufeffout, and then you're charging the battery. I'm like, 'are you alright mate?' and he's like, 'I just don't know.'<\/p>\n

"And we sat there all night, and I didn't go to sleep because I was a bit worried about Ben. And we sat and chatted for about seven hours until you left the next morning.<\/p>\n

"We got in deep to some stuff. And I couldn't believe how worried I was about you. You worried about me. Two cooked units sitting there, chewing the fat, talking about life."<\/p>\n

Cousins responded: "I do remember \ufeffthat night (at Crown) fondly. We've always had a good time when we've caught up, but I wasn't going too well at that time."<\/p>\n

"I wasn't either," Fevola added.<\/p>\n

Cousins recounted the events of that night, discovering that he had a lifelong friend that he could contact when things got tough.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

"I do give it to you (Fev). Even after that night, there was a number of times that I received a call personally, or someone close to me did, from Fev, who would call up just to make sure I was going alright," Cousins said.<\/p>\n

After that fateful night, Fevola put his own issues aside and made sure he checked in on Cousins as often as possible.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"For probably the next year and a half, I reckon I'd ring him once or twice a month to see how he (Cousins) was going. We didn't hang out often, but I'd just call him to check in," Fevola said.<\/p>\n

Cousins has made a major effort to reform, which includes attending the 2021 and 2023 Brownlow Medal<\/a> nights and the Australian Open in 2024.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Fevola was also recently inducted into the Carlton Hall of Fame<\/a>.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

F\ufefformer Carlton forward Brendan Fevola has revealed he became a secret support network for struggling former West Coast Eagles star Ben Cousins during the lowest […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":377650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=385778"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385782,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385778\/revisions\/385782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/377650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=385778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=385778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=385778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}