Stephen Dank says it would be ‘ludicrous' if Essendon staff are charged by the AFL Mark Robinson
From: Herald Sun
August 12, 2013 10:00PMSTEPHEN Dank said it would be "ludicrous" if James Hird, Dr Bruce Reid and Danny Corcoran were charged by the AFL for conduct unbecoming.
The key Essendon trio is in the sights of the AFL and have been told they can expect to be charged, along with the club, over last year's supplements program run by sports scientist Dank and former high-performance manager Dean Robinson.
But Dank claims the coach, the club doctor and the head of football did everything to ensure the health and safety of the players throughout a supplements program Dank admitted was "cutting edge".
"They've done nothing disreputable, they've done nothing contrary to the WADA prohibited list, they only endeavoured to take Essendon on a cutting-edge program, a program I might add that wasn't pharmacologically experimental, might I add was far from exotic and might I say at all times had the players' welfare and wellbeing as its first and foremost consideration."
He described as "bullcrap" any suggestion Hird, Reid or Corcoran failed in their duty of care.
"The care of Reid and Hird on the players was paramount and always at the foremost of their consideration ," Dank said.
Asked if they should be charged, he said: "No. It's ludicrous."
Dank stressed, despite his sudden departure from the club last year and the ensuing scandal, that he loved working with the Bombers.
On Monday night he offered to help any individual charged by the AFL.
The man central to the drugs scandal is yet to speak to anti-doping authorities, and likely won't as he prepares promised legal action against ASADA and the AFL.
Dank's stance flies in the face of Ziggy Switkowski's Essendon-commissioned report into the management and governance of the supplements program.
Switkowski wrote of: " ... the rapid diversification into exotic supplements, sharp increase in frequency of injections, the shift to treatment off-site in alternative medicine clinics, emergence of unfamiliar suppliers, marginalisation of traditional medical staff ... combine(d) to create a disturbing picture of a pharmacologically experimental environment never adequately controlled or challenged or documented within the club in the period under review."
Dank, who was spoken to by the Australian Crime Commission in November as part of its investigation into drugs in sport, has not spoken to Hird since being moved on at the end of last season.
He claimed on Monday he had left the club with an inventory of supplements given to players during his time at Essendon.
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