Essendon players given banned drugs Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker
The Age
August 7, 2013 Some Essendon players were given WADA-banned substances AOD9604 and Thymosin Beta 4 under the direction of sports scientist Stephen Dank, according to circumstantial evidence detailed in the confi dential ASADA report into the AFL club's 2012 supplements program.
Multiple sources aware of the contents of the report told Fairfax Media that it detailed the strong faith that Essendon coaching and management staff , including James Hird, placed in Dank and his assurance the program complied with the rules – a claim he maintains.
ASADA has also found that Essendon staff failed to implement basic governance, management and medical practices to ensure players were not exposed to health and doping risks. It found that the club failed to follow its own protocols around the use of drugs suggested by Dank.Basic records about what drugs were given to specific players were not kept.
This failure has made it more diffi cult for anti-doping investigators to build a prima facie case that could enable doping infraction notices to be issued to individual players.
A source who has read the ASADA report said the circumstantial evidence was very strong that Thymosin Beta 4 - a drug deemed by the World Anti-Doping Agency to be performance enhancing - was given to several players at the club.
Eleven players have told ASADA that they were given what they were told was Thymosin, although they could not say what sort of Thymosin it was.
ASADA has confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that AOD9604 - a failed anti-obesity drug banned by WADA under its S0 category because it is not approved for human use - was used at the club.
The report states that players were largely unwitting victims of a high-risk and poorly governed program.
The ASADA investigation into Essendon is ongoing and the prospect of infraction notices for doping violations being issued to individual players or the wider team remains open.
However, any such decision would be weighed against the evidence showing that the players acted in good faith and were given poor advice and directions by Dank - who has refused to be interviewed by ASADA - and others at the club.
Separate to ASADA's deliberations, the AFL is weighing whether to punish the club or its officials, including Hird, under the code's own rules on exposing players to risky practices. Punishment could include the loss of premiership points or the suspension of staff.
The report will relieve Hird to the extent that the evidence gathered portrays him as a person who never sought to break anti-doping rules or knowingly expose his players to harm.
However, it is understood that Hird is one of several officials identified as having failed to ensure proper practices were implemented and followed, exposing players to an unsafe workplace.
The circumstantial evidence gathered by ASADA about the use of Thymosin Beta 4 is corroborated by an interview Dank gave to Fairfax Media in April in which he repeatedly talked about giving Thymosin Beta 4 to players.
Hours before publication of a story on April 12, Essendon told Fairfax Media that it would dispute reports about Thymosin Beta 4 being used because player consent forms only referred to "Thymosin" and it was possible a version of the drug not banned by WADA had been used.
When contacted for clarification by Fairfax Media prior to publication, Dank said he was mistaken in his original on-the-record interview and that his references to Thymosin Beta 4 in fact related to a drug called thymomodulin.
In his earlier on-the-record interview, Dank confirmed he had used Thymosin Beta 4 and did so because he said there was "good data, very good data, that supports Thymosin Beta 4 in the immune system".
When questioned about ASADA's decision in April 2013 to publicly list Thymosin Beta 4 as "prohibited", Dank responded: "Well, that must have just only come in this year and I will get someone to speak to ASADA about that. That's just mind-blowing."
ASADA has previously confirmed that Thymosin Beta 4 has been banned since 2011 under a catch-all provision of the doping code.
The circumstantial evidence detailed in the report to build a case that Thymosin Beta 4 was used includes:
■ Witness testimony and documentary evidence, included that provided by fitness adviser and convicted drug offender Shane Charter, regarding his provision of Thymosin Beta 4 to Dank and advice on how to administer it.
■ Player consent forms reflecting Charter's advice to Dank regarding dosages of Thymosin Beta 4.
■ Documents and communications, including invoices, text messages and emails, referring to the use of a Thymosin peptide at Essendon.
Player consent forms, public assertions by Dank, text messages and an admission by Essendon skipper Jobe Watson strongly suggest that AOD9604 was given to players.
Read more:
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-players-given-banned-drugs-20130806-2rdvs.html#ixzz2bCdGSiWL
