The lost souls from West Coast’s premiership side of 2006 continue to mount.

On the field they were a special combination.

The brilliance of Ben Cousins, Chris Judd and Daniel Kerr was complemented by more blue-collar species like Daniel Chick and Adam Hunter to create a side that was very difficult to beat.

• Daniel Kerr interviewed over fire at wife’s home 
• Ben Cousins arrested, in hospital 
• Cousins caught at SAS barracks
• Eagles’ drug dramas caused fractures: Cox

But the combination was just as dangerous off the field – to themselves.

Cousins and Kerr have had more brushes with the law than Jesse James, while Chick, Hunter and Chad Fletcher have all faced drug charges since their retirement.

Ben Cousins and John Worsfold after winning the 2006 AFL premiership. Photo: Getty

The Eagles have always prided themselves on being one of the most professional sporting clubs in the country.

Formed in 1986, they have rarely been out of the finals and have won three premierships since inception.

But at what cost?

Chris Mainwaring, a star in the first two of those premierships, died in 2007 after a drug binge.

Now two more premiership stars are spiralling, battling their demons in a very public way.

The headlines out of Western Australia over the past month have been troubling to say the least.

But they were troubling a decade ago, too, and nothing happened then.

For too long characters like Cousins, Kerr and Fletcher were indulged by an organisation that put on-field success ahead of all else.

As long as they were doing the job on the footy field they were golden.

The way Cousins and Kerr played is the way they lived – flat-out all the time with no handbrake.

Cousins was arrested in Canning Vale on Monday after driving and behaving erratically.

(In his biography he describes a harrowing night trying to score drugs “in a semi-industrial area in the back of Canning Vale”.)

Kerr was last year charged with two counts of endangering the life, health or safety of a person after splashing petrol around a residence.

On Friday he had his bail conditions altered so he could head to Denmark to play and coach football.

On Monday he was questioned at his estranged wife’s home after a fire at the property.

Reading the reports, it appears Cousins – whose battles with the drug ice have been well documented – may be beyond salvage, while Kerr’s comments about his impending stint in Denmark don’t inspire much hope.

“I can’t say I’m totally changed but I definitely won’t be doing anything wrong or anything intentionally wrong in the near future,” Kerr said.

He sounds like a man trying to sell the idea of the straight life to himself.

Footy players, especially ones who can play like Cousins and Kerr could, are gods in Perth.

Daniel Kerr in full flight. Photo: Getty

But sooner rather than later they will find out they are just as mortal as the rest of us.

John Worsfold, the most towering figure in West Coast history, is a man who commands respect from every quarter.

An AFL premiership captain and coach, president of the AFL coaches’ association, most recently he was given the task of auditing the new coaching structure of the Adelaide Crows.

But somewhere along the line he and the rest of the power structure in place at the West Coast Eagles from 2002 until 2007 need to take a good hard look at themselves.

They enabled Cousins and Kerr.

Both are fathers now. If that isn’t reason enough to straighten up and fly right, what is?

West Coast fans probably wish they could turn back time to when they were top of the pile, and Kerr and Cousins were just footy players, running like maniacs across Subiaco Oval.

A time when they were young, before the jig was up and all the secrets were out in the open.

On the park it was a glorious era for the Eagles, but was that 2006 premiership worth it?

Cousins and Kerr’s continuing woes are symptomatic of men who were given far too long a leash.

The club’s image has been damaged irrevocably – and it gets dragged through the mud anew every time these two appear dishevelled on the nightly news.