Aussie Rules coaching great Kevin Sheedy says “we just need to make sure we can keep this young man alive” after former North Melbourne coach and player Dean Laidley was arrested last weekend amid reports of drug use [source].
Sheeds told Rowey & Bicks on the FIVEAA sports show that Laidley’s situation reminded him in some ways of Ben Cousins’:
“Obviously drugs really change the dynamic of a person’s life. The more you take the worse you get, there’s no doubt about that.
“Ben Cousins’ father had rung me to see if I could get him over to Melbourne… we’d just lost Chris Mainwaring and a great young actor in Heath Ledger, all Western Australians, and I’m thinking to myself if I don’t get Ben Cousins out of that position — he was on a merry-go-round and he’s still on it by the sounds — but we got him to Richmond and he’s still alive. That’s the main thing.
“It’s very hard to get these people off that merry-go-round and help them. We just need to make sure we can keep this young man alive and get out of the predicament that he’s found himself in.”
Laidley was arrested in St Kilda on Saturday night after police were called to an incident outside a residence about 9pm.
He was charged with stalking and other matters and will appear in court on Monday, May 11.
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