Ben Cousins makes a heartwarming appearance at West Coast game… and footy great still looks fit enough to play

Ben Cousins looked in great shape as the footy great made a heartwarming appearance at Perth’s Optus Stadium on Sunday.

Cousins, 45, is successfully rebuilding his life after his well-documented fall from grace in which he spent time in a prison cell in 2020.

The former Eagles star is a contestant on Dancing With The Stars, has been announced as a new radio host and says he is prioritising his children above all else.

And that could not have been better exemplified during Sunday’s game between West Coast and the GWS Giants, with Cousins taking part in a past players-sons and daughters match. 

It was a light-hearted session on the sunkissed Optus turf for the Brownlow Medal-winning star, who captained the club from 2001 to 2005.  

The footy great played in a past players-kids match at the sunkissed arena

He played 238 games and booted 205 goals for the West Coast Eagles, where he won a premiership with the club in 2006. 

His dramatic fall from grace was well documented from 2007 as he publicly battled a drug addiction and coped with his failed relationship with Maylea Tinecheff.

He was later sacked and copped a one year ban from the AFL for repeated infringements.

In 2021, Susan Backshell, who has acted as a mentor for Cousins since his last stint on jail, told Daily Mail Australia that he remains solely focused on his kids.

Sitting in a cold, cramped jail cell for the sixth time in 13 years, Cousins decided enough was enough after seven months behind bars in 2020.

He told her he wanted to make amends and clean up his life and Backshell gave him an ultimatum: ‘Give it his all, or forget it entirely’.

Cousins is rebuilding his life after a well-documented fall from grace

Since Cousins was released from custody back in December 2020, Backshell said she’s never once questioned his commitment to sobriety and bettering his community.

Last year, cousins announce hat he will partake in several speaking engagements on his Such Is Life Tour, which kicked off in July. 

Promising to tell untold tales from his football career, the tour marked a kind of catharsis for the controversial Brownlow Medallist.