WHEN Ben Cousins was racking up 28 disposals for the Coburg Tigers in the VFL last week in Frankston, the football world looked upon the much-hyped AFL veteran as if they expected a special performance.

The Richmond midfielder is in the twilight of his career and faced a one week ban that was reportedly because he distributed prescription sleeping tablets to a younger team-mate Luke McGuane who was also banned and played with Coburg last week.

Cousins, a Brownlow Medallist at West Coast, is perhaps past the break-out performances that made him such a big name player in the AFL.

While 28 disposals in the VFL is highly regarded, a Coburg Tigers player who was discarded from both North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, Sam Power, gathered 39 disposals in the same match.

It is perhaps more signs that Cousins’ appearance at the Tigers could be short-lived with many football media identities such as former Western Bulldogs ruckman Luke Darcy suggesting Cousins is clogging up Richmond’s list and should make way for a younger player.

Cousins, however, is a role model for the younger players. Surely they need experienced players in the team such as Cousins to remain competitive before bottoming out completely; albeit, his expectations should be lessened. He is no more the player than won so many matches from his own brutal endurance in the midfield for West Coast in his prime. But you can’t see Cousins playing past 2011.

Power told Sportsnet that Cousins’ attitude was terrific at Coburg.

“It’s a pretty close affiliation between Richmond and Coburg so the guys fully understand it,” Power said.

“They really embrace it and Ben Cousins is a perfect example who has played a lot of AFL football; him and Nathan Foley as well, they really embrace the club.”

“They conduct themselves really well and their professional athletes so they really have to.”

“I think they know there’s no other way. Obviously they would all rather be playing AFL and playing with Richmond but they know that when they’re down at Coburg that the only way they’re going to get back to playing AFL football is to do the thing that is asked of them by the people of Coburg and by the Richmond staff,” he said.

Power, meanwhile, is a playing assistant coach at Coburg and hopes to return to the AFL ranks as soon as next season.

“It was part of the reason why I decided to play VFL rather than local football,” he said.

“I’m only 26 and I still think I’m good enough to play at AFL level. There’s a bit of hope and with Gold Coast coming in and West Sydney, there’s probably more opportunities than there were other years. At the same time, there’s no guarantees with anything.”

Power said he wasn’t expecting to be delisted by North Melbourne last season and had hopes to join his brother Luke at the Brisbane Lions.

“I didn’t expect it,” he said.

“I played nearly every game during my couple of years at North. It definitely came out of the blue but with a new coach, a lot of clubs these days are going for youth policies.”

“In terms of other clubs, there was a bit of interest in Brisbane. I was hoping to up there and play with my brother and play for a great club but unfortunately it didn’t happen and I’ve moved on pretty quickly after that and focusing on playing with Coburg and my university studies,” he said.

Tell us what you think. Should Richmond keep Ben Cousins on its list past 2010?