Doping – six Australian rugby league clubs investigated

Wednesday, 13 February 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Anti-doping officials have met with six top-flight Australian rugby league clubs named in a national probe into the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs that has sent shockwaves through the sports-mad country.

The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency (ASADA) briefed National Rugby league (NRL) clubs Manly, Cronulla, Newcastle, Penrith, North Queensland and Canberra on their investigation process on Tuesday after the clubs confirmed they were under scrutiny in the wake of an explosive report released last week.

The report, the result of a year-long investigation by Australia’s top criminal intelligence unit, had already implicated two Australian Rules football teams, rocking a country long proud of its image as a nation that plays fair.

ASADA met with the affected NRL clubs as a group and individually on Tuesday, the NRL said, and senior officials at the teams put on a brave face after the briefings.

“We’re probably a low-to-medium risk around this,” Manly CEO David Perry told reporters. “It’s going to take a bit of time. It’s a confidential process.

“Even those that (investigators) do speak to aren’t necessarily guilty of any wrongdoing, it’s just a process that we go through.

“If it’s bigger than we think, well, you know, then we need to clean the game up, but based on my discussions today I’m fairly confident that we’re all OK.”

Penrith boss Phil Gould, who last week slammed investigators for releasing the doping report without providing details of affected clubs and players, said he understood it would be a drawn-out process.

“I’ve been well informed of what they are looking at and how long this process will take and how serious it is and at the end of the day we totally support the process and totally support the work the NRL is doing,” he told reporters.

The meeting came after Australia’s sports minister warned the country faced a grim fight to stamp out doping, which Australia’s top criminal intelligence unit said was fuelled by organised crime.

“Sports would be foolish to think that they didn’t need to take the integrity of their sport seriously,” sports minister Kate Lundy told reporters. “The substance of the issue here is that we do have a fight on our hands. It’s a serious one.

“Australians take their sport extremely seriously and as sport minister I will not stand by to allow this kind of thing to go on in Australian sport unchecked.”

The revelations have plunged both rival football codes into crisis ahead of the start of their seasons in March.