Ben Cousins' comeback to AFL took another huge blow on Saturday when all 16 clubs overlooked the fallen champion in the 2008 national draft.

The 2005 Brownlow Medallist's only hope of reviving his glittering 238-game career is if he is taken as a shock selection in the December 16 pre-season draft.

The Brisbane Lions were the last club to leave the door ajar on the possibility of recruiting Cousins in the December draft but after they ruled that out on Friday night, just three days after St Kilda confirmed its disinterest in the 2006 premiership player, no team is currently publicly entertaining the thought of throwing him a lifeline.

Brisbane coach Michael Voss explained his club's stunning about-face, which he described as a 'very tough call', just two days after stating that it would contemplate selecting Cousins in the pre-season draft if he was available and less than 24 hours before the national draft took place.

"(We had) further discussions and further things transpired," Voss said.

"I've said it before, every person that we bring to our football club, we've got a series of things that we've got to go through (when weighing up whether to draft him or not)."

"Now, it doesn't matter who that is, no-one's above that and we had to go through those things, we went through those things and we thought that it was best that we didn't pursue that option."

"I thought it was important to make it (the decision) as soon as we were clear on it and that way it doesn't leave people filling in the blanks for themselves."

While Voss wouldn't be drawn on speculating whether Cousins' career is now over, he admitted he wasn't surprised that none of the 85 picks on Saturday were used on Cousins.

"I think you come into the draft knowing what's going to happen and I guess there's been a lot of talk around Ben," said Voss.

"I guess it was stated by everyone where they sat on that coming into the draft and that their focus was on the kids."

"I know a couple of clubs have gone a different way with a few other more senior players but that certainly wasn't our strategy coming into this one."

The Lions used their first selection (No.7 overall) on talented Subiaco midfielder Daniel Rich, who many pundits predicted would be picked in the top five, and Voss was predictably very pleased to be able to snare the 18-year-old.

"Obviously you're never too 100 percent sure how it's (the draft order) going to pan out so to get the player we were after was very pleasing," he said.

"We certainly needed a midfielder but some of the attributes that he's got will really add to our group and I think probably has the capability to add to it straight away, his penetrating kick and his ability to be able to hit in pretty hard are pretty outstanding qualities."

Voss revealed that his club headed into the draft looking to top up its midfield stocks, with some of its best on-ballers in Simon Black (29 years old), Luke Power (28) and Travis Johnstone (28) all nearing the end of their careers.

"(I'm) not winding Simon (Black) up or anything like that but we know he's more towards the end of his career than his start so we gotta look at little things like that