CRONULLA Sharks preparations for their opening home game on Sunday have been thrown into chaos as the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) steps up its investigation into drugs in sport this week.
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With the eventual threat of possible suspensions as a consequence of the ongoing investigations, agencies have suspended all betting on the Sharks home game against the Gold Coast Titans at Shark Stadium.
The Cronulla board met with ASADA officials on Monday, and players held a meeting on Tuesday night to discuss the ongoing investigations.
It was the latest of a number of meetings which didn’t involve coach Shane Flanagan since ASADA visited the Sharks and five other NRL clubs during last month’s preliminary drugs-in-sport investigations. Significantly, it was the first attended by player managers.
When news filtered out about the players’ meeting, the Sharks’ Wednesday morning training session was effectively off limits to the media and any other onlookers, with training going ahead behind closed gates.
Later, the club cancelled a planned player appearance for Thursday at Westfield Miranda.
With club president Damian Irvine away, long-time Cronulla Sharks director Craig Douglas took charge of the ongoing investigations at the club, before later attending a meeting in the city.
There he was briefed about the ASADA inquires, centering on what knowledge players might have about the possible use and/or distribution of banned performance enhancing substances — in particular during the 2011 rugby league season.
Douglas, one of the architects behind the Sharks turning around their debt and the club gaining approval for their $300 million property development, returned but refused to make any comment, before planning another meeting with club directors.
ASADA was briefed originally following a damning report by the Australian Crime Commission over links they made between organised crime, importation of illegal drugs and the distribution of banned substances among sporting clubs in various states of Australia.
The Leader understands rugby league, AFL and other sporting clubs form just a small part of a more serious investigation by crime authorities, targeting organised crime.
A spokesman said the gangs had increasingly moved on Australia’s east coast as a means to increase their profits from the importation of illegal drugs, as well as performance enhancing drugs which are banned by the World Anti-Doping Authority.
An ASADA spokesman said late yesterday that investigations into Cronulla Sharks players were ‘‘still at the early stages of investigation’’.
The spokesman said no players would be facing possible suspensions ‘‘at this early stage’’.
A Sharks spokesman has refused to make any comment as the Leader newspaper went to press tonight.
The 2013 Sharks first grade squad contains less than half the players who played for the club in 2011: captain Paul Gallen heads those remaining, and including Anthony Tupou, Wade Graham, John Morris, Ricky Leutele, Matthew Wright and Chad Townsend, were selected in a 20-man squad for Sunday’s game against the Gold Coast Titans at Shark Park. The others are Stewart Mills, Ben Pomeroy, Nathan Stapleton, Sam Tagataese and Nathan Gardner, who were not included in the 20 for Sunday. There is no suggestion that any of these players are subject to the ASADA inquiry.
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