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Thirteen months after the drugs in sport scandal broke, 12 AFL players are still looking for closure
Michael Warner, Mark Robinson From: Sunday Herald Sun March 01, 2014 10:20PM
TWELVE AFL stars including 10 Bombers risk bans after telling anti-doping investigators they thought they had been injected with peptides.
Club captain Jobe Watson, Dyson Heppell and Michael Hurley are among 10 current Essendon players the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority says told its investigators they suspected they had been injected with either Thymosin, AOD-9604 or both.
The others are Tom Bellchambers, Jake Melksham, Heath Hocking, Michael Hibberd, Kyle Hardingham, Tayte Pears and Alex Browne.
Stewart Crameri, now at the Western Bulldogs, Scott Gumbleton, now at Fremantle, and delisted Bombers Ricky Dyson and Sam Lonergan also told ASADA they believed or suspected they had been injected with the drugs while at Essendon in 2012.
But ASADA faces an uphill battle to make any charges stick, with the players unsure what they were given and questions over the legal status of AOD-9604.
Thymosin Beta 4 is a ban-ned substance, though two other variants of the peptide are legal.
And while the world anti-doping body is adamant AOD-9604 is banned, ASADA has been accused of telling *!Essendon in 2012 that the substance was permitted for use.
Whatever the arguments, the 12 players face an uncertain *!future on the eve of the season.
Bombers coach Mark Thompson said the club was desperate for a resolution.
“Hopefully one day soon there will be closure for (the players),’’ he said on Thursday.
Essendon chairman Paul Little said he did not wish to comment on the *!matter.
He denied making a public statement to members.
Aurora Andruska, outgoing chief of ASADA, told a parliamentary committee last week that investigations were complete and briefs of evidence were being prepared.
Retired Federal Court judge Garry Downes will review the briefs.
If a decision is made to take action, players would then be issued with “show cause’’ letters and given 10 days to make submissions before the Anti-Doping Rules Violation Panel ruled on their guilt.
The AFL would then decide what penalties - if any - to impose. That process is expected to take months.
One of the key hurdles ASADA will have to overcome is the circumstantial evidence surrounding Essendon’s use of Thymosin.
In a text message discovered by ASADA, sports scientist Stephen Dank tells former Essendon fitness boss Dean “The Weapon’’ Robinson in August 2011: “Don’t forget how important Thymosin is. This is going to be our vital cornerstone next year.
“It is the ultimate assembly regulatory protein and biological modifier.”
In another text to Robinson, Dank states: “Thymosin is so effective in soft-tissue maintenance.”
The AFL charge sheet against Essendon alleged the texts were evidence “Dank was referring to Thymosin Beta-4” because only the banned type of Thymosin aids in “tissue regeneration and recovery functions’’.
But Dank has denied giving Thymosin Beta-4 to any Bombers players and claims he was referring to the legal variant in the texts.
He has not given an interview to ASADA.
Whether bans could be pursued over AOD-9604 use is also unclear.
In its Drugs In Sport report last year, the Australian Crime Commission determined it was not banned.
But the World Anti-Doping Agency has consistently stated AOD-9604 was illegal from January 2011.
ASADA investigators conducted interviews with every player on Essendon’s 2012 list in April and May last year.
All Essendon players signed medical consent forms at the start of 2012 in the belief the drugs they were being given were approved by WADA.
The maximum penalty for doping is a two-year ban, but given the unique circumstances surrounding the supplements program, any players found guilty would expect to get significant discounts.
The Sunday Herald Sun also contacted Western Bulldogs, *!Fremantle, Lonergan’s manager and Ricky Dyson, but none wished to comment.
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