Another interesting read by Roy Masters which suggests ASADA have email evidence of doping practices at Cronulla. Struggling to see how Flanagan didn't know whats going on. Surely a good coach knows everything.:
An email trail linking the four sacked members of the Sharks' football department demonstrates they feared possible doping breaches at the club at least two months before May 29, 2011, when sports scientist, Stephen Dank, was told to leave.
Hard copies of emails, dating from March 2011, linking football manager Darren Mooney, club doctor David Givney, physiotherapist Konrad Schultz and trainer Mark Noakes show they could have informed the Cronulla board much earlier of the possible use of performance-enhancing drugs at the club. The trail also includes a warning from a doctor at another NRL club. The NRL has confirmed information obtained by Deloitte Forensic and funded by the NRL has been sent to ASADA.
''It is ASADA's investigation,'' an NRL spokesman said. ''We hired Deloitte Forensic, and they passed the information on.''
The Sharks conducted their own inquiry, which led to the sacking of the four staff and the standing down of coach Shane Flanagan due to failure of management practices. This is in keeping with ASADA penalties that reflect the additional duty of care of people in supervisory positions, with sanctions between eight years and life for those found guilty of doping offences. Flanagan has subsequently been reinstated, following hard-copy evidence he was not part of the email trail.
However, the emails demonstrate that the four sacked members of the football department could have acted sooner against Dank and trainer Trent Elkin.
Flanagan was also reinstated because the NRL and the Cronulla board clearly see him as a mentor who can offer sound advice to the 14 Sharks players being investigated by ASADA.
While some members of the board justify the initial standing down of Flanagan because a head coach is expected to be an all-seeing eye at a club, they recognise the confidence the players have in him.
Flanagan can be expected to study the ASADA drug code and potential range of penalties available and make recommendations to players who hold him in a position of trust. He is signed for a further two years and if any of the 14 players accepted a six-month ban they would be back for the 2014 season.
ASADA will recommend some six-month penalties via its ability to offer a maximum 75 per cent discount of a two-year ban, provided a player offers ''substantial assistance''. It is likely young players, some of whom have literacy problems, may be offered the minimum suspension, while long-term players who have had the
benefit of hours of drug education may face longer bans.
Clearly any club in this situation would have concerns about the shadow these serious issues will cast over the heads of younger players, particularly the younger Polynesian ones who come from a different cultural background to some of their peers.
The legal and PR costs to the Sharks, together with their own forensic accounting, have hocked the cash-strapped club to the NRL for at least five years.
Board elections will be held next month, and voting tickets are being arranged, but the future of the club, involving a possible relocation to Perth, will be in the hands of the NRL, not the incoming directors.
NRL sources indicate the Sharks are not privy to ASADA's intelligence, which is thought to have been obtained by phone taps, surveillance and intercepts.
Its protocol demands this evidence be first placed in front of players at interviews, giving them the option of co-operating.
The Sharks are at the end point of an 18-month investigation, which began with the detection of imported peptides from China. Sources suggest the drugs were ultimately acquired by people with connections to NRL and AFL clubs.
It is possible these agents may escape without any penalty. ASADA has no sanctioning powers. It merely makes recommendations to a sport's judiciary. Nor can it demand an interview of anyone not contracted to a club.
In other words, Dank, who now has no association with the NRL or the AFL, may refuse to be interviewed by ASADA and not appear before any tribunal. He has repeatedly said he has done no wrong. Performance-enhancing drugs are not illegal in Australia, and therefore attract no criminal sanctions. While ASADA has praised the NRL for its co-operation, it is understood the AFL's own integrity unit is taking a significant role in its investigation into Essendon and any associated cases.
While ASADA has an NRL whistleblower, it is not clear whether the same applies to the AFL.
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/sharks-feared-doping-before-dank-left-20130324-2go1w.html#ixzz2OUKAKlef
