St Kilda drops out of the Ben Cousins race

And then there was one…St Kilda has now pulled out of the running for Ben Cousins, stating they will not be recruiting the former West Coast star:

The Saints were considered the front-runners to sign the 2005 Brownlow Medallist, but the club board and executive have decided unanimously against recruiting him.

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Key St Kilda figures, including the board, coach Ross Lyon and chief executive Archie Fraser, met for two hours at a secret location in Melbourne late on Tuesday to decide on the West Coast premiership player and former captain.

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“We owed it to ourselves to undertake a rigorous and thorough review and have now made our decision,” Fraser said in a club statement.

“This is a decision that we didn’t take lightly and we still believe that for the right club, Ben could well be a great opportunity.”

So St Kilda are saying all the right things, but it appears someone has put the foot down, most likely the sponsors – as before today it appeared that they were all but ready to pay Cousins in drugs to get him on board in order to push themselves into premiership contention.

This leaves just …Brisbane in the mix of those openly recruiting Cousins:

The Lions will meet today and consider their position on Cousins, but they now appear to have the option of drafting him in either the national draft or pre-season draft.

In other Ben Cousins news:

– Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas says he is “really surprised” that the Saints decided last night to reject fallen Eagle Ben Cousins.

– AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou says he hopes Ben Cousins is picked up by a club in this year’s draft in order to aid him with his rehabilitation.