Thursday March 26, 7:40pm at the MCG suddenly had the potential to stage football’s version of a prize fight: Richmond v Carlton – Cousins v Judd.
And it seems the potential will be realised with Cousins likely to be available to play in the very first fixture of the 2009 premiership season, according to Richmond elite performance manager Matthew Hornsby.
While Carton skipper Chris Judd has managed his first pre-season for three years with no injuries or operations to recover from, Cousins is also looking good for the match-up.
"The way he's going, he'll certainly be available for selection – I don't want to take the coach's hat there, putting him in the 22 already," Hornsby told richmondfc.com.au.
"But yeah, he's probably exactly where you need him to be at this stage.”
Hornsby stressed that while Cousins had not achieved match fitness just yet, the indicators were all positive.
"He knows that there's still a fair bit more to go before he's absolutely cherry-ripe for playing AFL footy, but we have time to prepare for that,” he said.
"We're still in January, and we don't play until near on April – the very end of March – so he's got a really good opportunity to be able to get some great continuity in the next month, and then get three or four games of footy under his belt before round one.
"That's the plan that we're going with, and hopefully he doesn't have any hiccups along the way."
The last time Cousins played a competitive match of football - against Port Adelaide in a qualifying final in 2007 – he tore his hamstring, a muscle he's had issues with over his entire celebrated career.
But Hornsby said Cousins, at 30 and with 238 games under his belt, was a hardy specimen.
"There's a big focus on doing everything we can to reduce the potential for soft-tissue injury, because at his age, with a little bit of a history and with time out of the game, that's always a risk.
"[We’re] being careful with his progressions, so that his body adapts to it, but not too conservative to the point where you don't get the sort of work into him that he needs as well.
"The great thing is, he knows what he needs – he's experienced.”
Hornsby said Cousins’ durability over the course of a long and arduous career was another reason for optimism.
"To be honest, he hasn't had too bad a run with them (hamstrings) – he's had a couple of incidents, but for a guy who's played as much footy as he has, the reality is he's actually been quite durable over the whole course.
"Yeah, he's had a couple of problems in recent time, but there's not too many blokes in the competition who haven't had that at his age."
So be ready for the bell to ring come round one. It should be quite a contest.
