This change will give relevance and significance to a rather forgotten and underappreciated channel of the Swan and Canning River.

Ben Cousins has been arguably one of the most successful footballers to come out of the state of Western Australia. What he was able to achieve on the playing field will be hard to match. 

In Victoria, some of the most iconic athletes from their state get a statue of them outside of the Melbourne Cricket Ground or a oval named after them. This is not the case for Western Australians, as Nicky Windmar and Graham Farmer are most well-renown athletes that have a statue and a freeway named in their honour, which is rightly deserved. Ben Cousins didn't have as great influence compared to those mentioned above, but when you talk about AFL to anyone not from WA, the name Ben Cousins and what the 2006 West Coast Eagles is always bought up.

Ben Cousins deserves a tribute to his success from his playing days at the West Coast Eagles and the Richmond Football Club and I believe that renaming this patch of river to the Ben Cousins Channel is appropriate.