CTV> Tarkyn Lockyer spoke to the media after Monday's open training session at Gosch's PaddockCOLLINGWOOD midfielder Tarkyn Lockyer hasn’t given much thought to whom might run with new Tiger Ben Cousins but he does know one thing: whichever Pie does get the job will have his work cut out.
Cousins has been off the AFL scene for 18 months but Lockyer says that won't affect the 30-year-old when he runs out against Collingwood in Thursday night’s NAB Cup quarter-final at Telstra Dome.
“It’s a wonderful story, isn’t it? Good on him,” Lockyer said after his team trained at Gosch’s Paddock on Monday morning.
“He’s a wonderful player and to come back from what he’s been through is tremendous.”
Collingwood had been among the clubs to initially pursue the former West Coast star.
For whatever reason the Pies dropped out of the race, as did one or two other clubs, and eventually the Tigers pounced.
Now, after a couple of months’ training under his belt, Lockyer doesn’t expect the Brownlow Medallist to have suffered too much from his stint out of the game.
“We’re expecting Ben Cousins to be Ben Cousins,” he said.
“We all know that he’s a terrific midfielder, he’s a goalkicking midfielder and one of those guys that is always prepared to the best of his abilities and is ready to go.”
Teams such as Geelong are credited with introducing a faster-paced, high-tempo brand of footy over the past two seasons while Cousins has been on the sidelines.
But Lockyer doubts Cousins will have any trouble adjusting to the pace of the game.
“Gee, for someone like Ben, I dunno,” Lockyer said. “He’s a pretty good player."
"Obviously the speed of the game’s picked up but judging by what I’ve seen of the footage [of Cousins training], he’s pretty fit and looks like he’s ready to go. I’m sure he won’t have too much trouble adjusting.”
So, will Lockyer be putting his hand up should Mick Malthouse ask: 'who wants to play on the reborn Cousins?'
“I dunno. I haven’t really thought about it to be honest,” he said.
“We’ll see how we go. You never know.”
