WHILE the door has been closed for now on his AFL career, Ben Cousins could become one of the highest-qualified players to grace the ranks of the lower leagues next year.

The Brownlow medallist, four-time best-and-fairest winner and six-time All-Australian may be free to ply his trade in either the West Australian Football League or in VFL ranks as he goes about his rehabilitation from drug addiction and tries to return to the AFL in 2009.

A spokesman for the AFL said last night that while Cousins was prohibited from training with an AFL club, his capacity to play in Victoria at a lower level was a decision for the VFL to make, and that the former Eagles' champion technically could be free to play in the competition.

That would preclude Cousins joining either Geelong or Collingwood, both now with stand-alone reserves teams, but could leave him free to play with teams aligned with AFL sides, such as Coburg, Sandringham, Casey or Bendigo, or the unaligned likes of Port Melbourne should he decide to make a clean break from his home state in order to secure a place on the list of a second AFL club.

Cousins also may be free to continue playing football in Perth, his former club East Fremantle the most likely candidate. The WA Football Commission will discuss tomorrow the possibility of Cousins playing in the WAFL next season.

"We're just taking further advice to see whether Ben is eligible to play or not," WAFC chief executive Wayne Bradshaw said last night. "We do have rules that indicate that if a player engages in conduct unbecoming, then he can be deregistered. But we'll consider all that at the commission meeting.

"I don't really want to get into what our considerations will be until then. We won't make a decision on whether he plays or not, we'll just have a look at what the rules are and make a decision on the process."

West Coast last night released a brief statement backing the AFL's suspension of Cousins.

"The West Coast Eagles believed at the time of terminating the contract of Ben Cousins that the best opportunity for Ben to address his serious health issue was to do so away from the spotlight of preparing and playing in the AFL," the statement said.

"The club still believes it to be the case and we hope Ben can now do that and successfully fight this problem."