A FORMER Eagles rookie used ice while playing football alongside fallen AFL star Ben Cousins, court documents have alleged.

Ben Russell Sharp, 29, is accused of arming himself with a shotgun and a handgun and stealing close to $300,000 in cash destined for a McDonald’s restaurant in Sunbury.

The disgraced former footballer, who appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court with his little brother Christopher, was smoking up to $200 worth of the deadly drug ice when he allegedly committed the robbery last December.

media_camera Former West Coast Eagles player Ben Sharp

After his arrest, Sharp told police he had been using the drug on and off for 10 years.

Sharp played briefly with the Eagles after being picked-up in the 2007 rookie draft.

When asked if he was using more ice at the time of the robbery, Sharp told them his habit had always been large.

“Probably about the same really,’’ he told police.

Sharp featured in Cousins’ tell-all book, Ben Cousins: My Life Story, in 2010.

In it, Cousins said he used his last phone call to ring Sharp after he’d been arrested outside Crown while off his face.

Cousins wrote that Sharp told police to “f—k off’’, which earned Cousins some additional time in the cells.

Police allege Sharp, along with his 23-year old brother Chris, and mate Nathan Lack, 33, used two motorcycles and a stolen car to ambush a guard who had collected money from seven McDonald’s stores in the early hours of December 1.

Detectives allege they found $6000 in $10 notes hidden in a dishwasher, and a shotgun, at the Point Cook home of the former AFL rookie.

media_camera Ben Cousins says he used his last telephone call after he was arrested to ring Sharp. Picture: Lincoln Baker

Police also allegedly found cash and a weapon hidden at the Lakeside Drv home where Mr Sharp had lived with his parents since December.

Police also alleged that Sharp stole a car in an aggravated burglary in the same street where his parents lived.

That car was allegedly used in the hold-up and then set alight later that morning in Little River.

Sharp has pleaded not guilty to 16 charges, including armed robbery and trafficking methylamphetamine.

His brother Chris and Mr Lack have also pleaded not guilty to armed robbery and related offences.

The men will return to court for a directions hearing next week.