hris Mainwaring, 41, dies in Perth
FORMER West Coast Eagles premiership player Chris Mainwaring has died in Perth today.
Mainwaring, 41, was rushed to hospital by ambulance at midnight after collapsing at home.
Paramedics later took him from his upmarket house in the coastal Perth suburb Cottosloe to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
The former champion wingman was among the original Eagles 1987 team.
He played in two premierships in 1992 and 1994.
The 201-game veteran helped propel the Eagles into a league powerhouse.
He quit West Coast in 1999 after a comeback from a debilitating knee injury.
Mainwaring joined other former AFL greats Gerard Healy, Kevin Bartlett, Rod Austin, Robert Walls and Mark Bickley on this years all-Australian team selection panel.
He has worked as a Channel 7 newsreader and sports reporter and on Perth radio since ending his footy career.
Mainwaring is survived by wife, Rani.
The shock death follows a tumultuous season for the Eagles including drug scandals and the sudden loss of star skipper Chris Judd.
Judd recently quit to move back to family and friends in Melbourne.
Wayward champ Ben Cousins was banished from the team after confessing to substance abuse and spending time in an exclusive rehabilitation clinic in Malibu.
Fellow midfielder Daniel Kerr was fined $2000 in August after pleading guilty to a serious assault charge over a fracas at a Perth party.
He was also fined $10,000 by his club in February after pleading guilty to assaulting a taxi driver.
The Eagles issued Kerr with a suspended fine of $20,000 and warned he would be banned from senior games if he re-offended.
Kerr was named in a police investigation in which phone taps in 2003 captured him talking to a convicted drug trafficker.
Unconfirmed rumours in Perth, have suggested that Ben Cousins was in his company or had been in his company prior to this occuring.
One hates to paint the two pictures together however if any basis....will certainly raise some questions for the club as a whole.
Only what i heard, i didnt say there was any truth to it.
I have not heard this one and I am living over here !!!
Well i live here in Perth as well and i am aware that Cousins was not in the USA and had been in the company of Mainwaring during that evening.
Being in Perth means little to having knowledge of what has occured, much the same i would think as to your believe on whether Judd actually wanted or as you put it "demanded" to play.
I as i have said before have an indirect association with a number of Eagles players, not that that guarantees first hand knowledge however i have heard things from time to time which usually turn out to be close to the mark.
Only what i heard, i didnt say there was any truth to it.
Well it was just reported on Channel 7 so it looks like you were right !!!
Western Australia and the AFL community have been shocked by the news that former West Coast Eagles champion Chris Mainwaring is dead.
Mainwaring was pronounced dead a short time after 12.30am this morning at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital after being taken there by ambulance following a collapse at his home.
Mainwaring’s wife, Rani, was at the family’s farm in Toodyay, about 100 kilometres north-east of Perth and the news of her husband’s death was published by many outlets before she knew, but a close friend broke the news to her first.
It has since emerged that one of the last people to spend time with Mainwaring was one of his close friends, Ben Cousins, who is believed to have been with Mainwaring late yesterday.
wwos.com.au understands Chris Mainwaring phoned Ben Cousins and asked him to come over to his home. It's believed Cousins stayed only a short time. According to Brad Hardie, Brownlow medallist and commentator for Perth radio station 6PR, Mainwaring has been in the midst of a "personal crisis".
The death of club legend Mainwaring is another blow in a tumultuos year for West Coast, with the 41 year-old a superstar in Perth throughout a career that included the arrival of Cousins at the Eagles in 1996 as a 17 year old.
Mainwaring wrecked his knee at the start of the 1996 season which kept him out of the game until late in 1998. The pair would have played just a handful of games together before Mainwaring retired in the middle of the 1999 season, but their friendship had been cemented and has endured.
Police and the St John Ambulance were called to Mainwaring's home in the beach suburb of Cottesloe following a complaint he was yelling in the street at 11.45pm (WST) on Sunday.
When they arrived, the 41-year-old was calm and refused help from the ambulance officers who left him in the care of a neighbour, police said.
Chris Mainwaring, champion wingman. Photo: Getty Images
St John Ambulance was again called to Mainwaring's home at 12.30pm where officers found him unconscious. He was taken to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
Police will investigate the death and prepare a report for the coroner.
"Mainy", as he was affectionately known, was a brilliant footballer for the Eagles during their dominant years of the 1990s.
He was a crucial member of the two premiership sides of 1992 and 1994 playing as a wingman who with Dean Kemp and Peter Matera formeed a damaging centreline. He was the type of player who could turn a game off his own boot with a flash of brilliance but equally would put his body on the line when it mattered.
Mainwaring played 201 games, was a regular player for his beloved Western Australia and a two-time All Australian. The CEO of the West Coast Eagles, Trevor Nisbett, has known Mainwaring for more than twenty years.
"Last Friday, Chris was in the office, he came in for a workout as he often did and was telling me about plans for different things he had going on. We’re all very upset about the whole affair," Mr Nisbett said.
Off the field, Chris Mainwaring was known as a loveable larrikin, and there was no bigger name in Perth.
Chris Mainwaring kisses the cup with Glen Jakovich. Photo: Getty Images
A few scrapes with the law were forgiven by his adoring public because "Mainy" was the man all blokes wanted to be their mate and most girls wanted to marry.
During his playing days he was an accomplished media performer on radio station Mix 94.5 and has been a presenter with Channel Seven for more than a decade.
Managing Director of Channel Seven in Perth, Mr Chris Wharton, remembers Mainwaring as someone who had time for everyone.
"He was a generous man, a heart of gold, he did a lot of community work with his coaching clinics and with us at Channel 7, he always had a smile on his face and was a genuinely decent bloke", Mr Wharton said.
His reputation as a party boy had been replaced as that of a loving husband and family man in recent years. He is survived by his wife Rani and two children, Maddy, 8 and Zac, 6.
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