I'M sure everyone saw Ben Cousins taking a step towards making a comeback to AFL footy this week when he registered for VFL club Port Melbourne, and I've got no doubt a lot of clubs will now consider whether to draft the former West Coast Eagle.

If you look at him just as a footballer - focusing purely on what he does on the ground - Cousins would be perfect for us at the Swans. We've got a lot of in-and-under players who go hunting for the ball, guys like Brett Kirk and Jude Bolton, but Cousins is an outside-runner. He uses the ball and can run the lines … like Adam Goodes, and that's why Goodesy is so important to us.

So purely from the perspective of his playing abilities, Cousins would be a great fit for us. He has just what we need from a midfielder - he's hard at the ball. He was one of the greats for West Coast, a pretty successful club.

Plus, there's not many blokes who run until they are physically sick. But, and it's a big but, there's all those other issues Cousins would have to address first before we could consider him.

Cousins declared he had a problem with addiction and he's trying to get over it, and that's great. He's obviously going to need ongoing help, because addiction is not something you can get over in a couple of weeks.

You have to look at the whole package when you sign a player - not just Cousins, but all players - because it's pointless signing someone who proves to be more trouble than they are worth. If that happens, you have actually robbed someone else of a contract, someone who the club could develop into a player of equal ability in the seasons to come.