IMAGINE a footballer. Let's call him Ben Cussens. He comes from a well-known football family in Perth. He plays for West Coast, and quickly discovers that the Eagles guernsey is a cloak of invincibility in that city.

Doors open, hearts and wallets, too. Kids call his name. Glamorous women swan about. Powerful men court him. Some are obviously shady, which makes them exciting. This is the high life he has read about. His head swims.

Cussens is a competent footballer, but no star. Most weeks, he tags. One weekend, he is caught up in a drunken escapade in a nightclub. He ends up with his picture on the front of The West Australian. The taxi driver ends up in hospital.

The Eagles say there is no room or excuse at the club for such behaviour. They say they have worked hard to inculcate in the team a sense of responsibility, and have been betrayed. They sack him.

Imagine another footballer. Let's call him Ben Cozens. Good football family, plays for West Coast, finds out at a young age that he can do no wrong, etc …

Cozens is a damned good player. He is regularly in the top 10 in the best and fairest, and once named as an all-Australian. One weekend, he is found lying in a gutter, with no memory of the previous 24 hours. He ends up with his picture on the front of The West Australian. A girl presses charges.

West Coast says that he is a good kid, that everyone makes mistakes, that he deserves a chance. A year later, there is a brawl, a car, a crash. The Eagles say there is no room for such behaviour at the club etc … They sack him.

Let's consider a third footballer. His name is Ben Cousins. Famous football family, liver of the high life, untouchable, etc …

Cousins is a superstar, a former captain, a talisman. He is a Brownlow medallist, regular all-Australian and premiership player. He is the most marketable player at the club.

Cousins consorts with underworld figures. He is involved in drunken brawls, one with a teammate. He flees from a booze bus. His name is linked with drugs. He is found in a gutter in Melbourne, 3000 kilometres away. His picture ends up on the front of The West Australian, The Age and the Herald-Sun.

The Eagles say he is a good kid. They give him a last chance, then another, then another. They strip him of the captaincy. But when at last they win the premiership, they bid him to join coach and captain on the podium before any other player, as if to declare: "Here is our true leader." But finally, even he runs out of chances.

Cussens and Cozens do not exist, at least not by those names, nor at that club. Cousins does. His story has become one of football's most tragic. He had enormous privileges and squandered them. His name was his shield, protecting him, but also hiding him. If Cousins had been Cussens or Cozens, it might never have come to this.

West Coast will be condemned, but clubs are much of a muchness. A premiership coach said recently that at every club there was a player problem every day, "and crisis once a week". Still, the winning imperative prevails.

Years ago, Hawthorn sacked the young Gary Ablett because it was not enamoured of his character. The Hawks could afford to then; they simply bought in two or three others almost as good, and the premiership run went on. More recently, the Kangaroos sacked Wayne Carey; in the circumstances, they couldn't afford not to.

Mostly, though, expedience rules. A club can convince itself that it will be stronger ultimately for weeding out a Cussens or a Cozens, but rarely a Cousins. While Cousins was between last chances, he was instrumental in winning the Eagles a premiership. Now, though, he is almost 29 and, perhaps for the first time, no more worth the club's while than, say, Cussens or Cozens. Cussens, Cozens, Cousins; it's all relative.

Let's imagine two other footballers. One is called Ryan Bloggs. He is drafted to West Coast from a small country town on the eastern seaboard. From the beginning, he is confused by the gap between rhetoric and reality. As a teenager, he does not have the wherewithal to reconcile that gap. He doesn't last long.

The other is Bloggs Ryan. He's in the under 14s anywhere in the country. He wants to be a superstar, just like Ben Cousins. He knows what he has to do.