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1631

Stephen Dank to offer information over Nathan Bock’s alleged use of a prohibited substance

MICHAEL WARNER, Herald Sun
13 minutes ago

BANNED sports scientist Stephen Dank has contacted the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority to offer information over Nathan Bock’s alleged use of a prohibited substance at the Gold Coast Suns.

Dank called ASADA director of investigations Darrell Jeffrey on Tuesday.

He says he will admit to sourcing the peptide CJC-1295 in December 2010 for Bock to use to treat an injured achilles.

Bock, who is now the coach of the Southport Sharks in the NEAFL competition in Queensland, has never been charged for using a prohibited substance.

The star AFL expansion club recruit told ASADA in 2013 that he injected himself with a substance given to him by former Suns fitness boss Dean Robinson between December 16, 2010 and January 27, 2011.

ASADA has previously insisted it was unable to establish whether the drug Bock was provided was actually CJC-1295. Bock has always maintained his innocence.

Dank called Jeffrey after the Herald Sun revealed Robinson had been re-registered to work in the NRL for the Sydney Roosters.

He says he has agreed to provide ASADA with a signed statutory declaration detailing what he claims are the activities of Bock, Robinson and himself at the time of the alleged anti-doping rule violation.

An ASADA spokeperson said on Friday night: “ASADA considers all information relating to potential anti-doping rule violations.

“If Mr Dank has evidence of any possible anti-doping rule violations, it is up to him to provide it.

“(But) ASADA is not prepared to waste further time and resources chasing Mr Dank, noting that he has failed at every previous opportunity to provide information relating to possible anti-doping rule violations.

“Where there are no positive tests, ASADA needs reliable evidence in order to bring forward cases of possible anti-doping rule violations. Given his failure to provide this information to ASADA, and the contradictory statements he has made in the media over several years, Mr Dank would not be considered a reliable witness.”

Robinson and Dank worked together at the Suns before reuniting at Essendon in late 2011 to mastermind the disastrous supplements program that led to the suspension of 34 Bombers players.

Dank was slapped with a lifetime ban by the AFL two years ago but Robinson was never punished.

Dank has admitted to buying CJC-1295 at a Sydney compounding pharmacy in December 2010 and taking it to the Gold Coast on a plane in a cooler bag packed with dry ice.

He claims he gave the drug to Robinson, who taught Bock how to self-administer it.

“I bought it at the Belgrave pharmacy in Sydney and delivered it to Robinson’s house,” Dank claimed to the Herald Sun last year.

“From there, Robinson demonstrated to Bock how to use it and instructed him accordingly.”

Asked whether there was any doubt the drug he supplied Bock was the WADA banned CJC-1295, Dank said: “No. There is no doubt in my mind.”

Dank has not previously co-operated with ASADA and maintains that CJC-1295 was not a banned substance.

It is the same performance-enhancing peptide that led to suspensions for 12 Cronulla players in the NRL.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/stephen-dank-to-offer-information-over-nathan-bocks-alleged-use-of-a-prohibited-substance/news-story/a54995170b6fdcb37026d1e34e58baae

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1632

[email protected]
[email protected]

Their emails are usually at the bottom of their on line articles.

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1633

LOL.

I cant believe it.
What is ASADA going to do now?
Dank may as well sign another Stat Dec confirming it was thymomodulin used at Essendon same as Melbourne.
Lets see what Stat Dec they honour.

This is becoming almost comical.

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1634

The thought of Dean Robinson working with an AFL club again is disturbing, writes @Robbo_heraldsun bit.ly/2spZkpM

Everyone on twitter like this post - it was as the superfooty twitter account

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1635

ASADA is shifting ground. Now Dank is not a reliable witness, previously it was because he refused to talk to ASADA.
No doubt ASADA and/or the ACC checked out pharmacy sales.
Has ASADA checked with the Weap? But then the Weap is not too reliable, given the stories he made up in the Darcy interview.
The AFL could also assert no knowledge, given that the joint investigation with ASADA only covered Essendon.

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1636

Incredible development.

Amazing factual story.

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1637

I thought Bock did have a positive test

1638

They’ve had the facts all along.

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1639

The lack of witnesses and testimony made it so much easier to prove the drug we took was TB-4.

FFS.

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1640

Darren Kane has raised questions about Robinson’s fitness to be employed by the Roosters in the NRL, with ASADA mentioned in dispatches.

  • report in SMH
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1641

Spot on with your post. Sports need to fight the cabal who wish to throw every sport or sub sport under the WADA code. It’s not a one fits all approach.

1642

Allan Hird’s latest, in The Australian, 1 July 2017.

How can Dean Robinson be allowed to work in elite sport again?

This week the Herald Sun had two articles about NRL team the Sydney Roosters
recruiting the coach’s brother to help with player fitness.

Why would a Melbourne newspaper be reporting on a Sydney NRL club? The Roosters’ new fitness guru is one Dean Robinson, that’s why. Robinson was Steven Dank’s boss at Essendon in 2012 when the Essendon players, according to ASADA and WADA, were administered the banned substance Thymosin Beta 4. Dank was banned for life while Robinson has had a charmed life.

At the start, things looked bleak for Robinson. Essendon stood him down immediately the substance allegations surfaced and his career seemed over. But when he gave testimony to ASADA, his fortunes changed. The AFL media began to present him in a different light. So much so that in July 2013, Channel 7 had him tell his story in a prime-time interview. Robinson was paid for his story and was provided with a platform to trash the reputation of Essendon coach James Hird.

The allegations Robinson threw around about Hird were largely untested by the interviewer and in my view were wrong. He said the Australian Federal Police had raided Hird’s house looking for drugs. But as The Age’s John Silvester reported on August 1, 2013, the AFP denied it had ever raided Hird’s house.

Robinson’s interview was one of the many unfounded attacks on Hird’s character in the Melbourne media leading up to Hird being suspended by the AFL in August 2013. It helped create the environment the AFL needed to get Hird.

Subsequently, things fell into place for Robinson. Essendon, no questions asked, gave him a reported $1 million payout after he ­issued Supreme Court subpoenas against the AFL and Essendon. He landed a job with KPMG, who at the time were the AFL’s auditors.

ASADA has been kind to Robinson, too. Dank was charged by ASADA and has been banned for life. But not so Robinson, despite his admitted involvement with banned substances while at the Gold Coast Suns. The Herald Sun this week said of Robinson: “(He) told ASADA investigators that (Gold Coast Sun Nathan) Bock visited his Gold Coast home where he gave him the banned substance CJC-1295 … late in 2010.”

Robinson claimed Dank had told him the drug was not banned and Dank has since confessed to giving CJC-1295 to Bock. ASADA has not charged Bock or Robinson.

As reported, ASADA has an “understanding’’ with Robinson. Is that the way for a government agency to behave?

When asked about Robinson’s job with the Roosters, ASADA said: “The decision to register Dean Robinson is … entirely up to the Sydney Roosters and NRL.”

ASADA, if its Act means anything, should have pursued Robinson after he admitted he gave Bock a banned substance. But it didn’t.

Here’s a question for Sport Minister Greg Hunt: What purpose does ASADA serve when it allows an admitted supplier of banned substances to resume his career with athletes?

Allan Hird is the father of former Essendon coach James Hird​

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1643

I love Allan Hird.

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Thanks

1645

Me too. He might be Jim’s father but his focus is on justice for all, exposing the dodgy practices of the controlling organisations.

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1646

Six of one half a dozen of the other, ASADA chop and change so often, they are good at making nothing into something and something into nothing and completely irrelevant. And; that is what they have done.

Essendon 34 and Dean Robinson, there are just two good examples.

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Astonishing

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Full statement from AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal Chairman

April 17, 2015 5:22 PM

The Tribunal today provided to the parties its decision, which was unanimous, and reasons for the decision with respect to alleged violations of the AFL Anti-Doping Code by a former support person at the Essendon and Gold Coast Football Clubs.

The decision is as follows (the numbers refer to the infraction notice issued to the former support person on 14 November 2014):

…

10(B) The Tribunal is comfortably satisfied that the former support person violated clause 11.7 of the AFL Code by attempting to traffick in, by selling, giving, transporting, sending, delivering and/or distributing to a third party or parties, namely the Gold Coast Suns Football Club and support persons of the club, a prohibited substance, namely CJC-1295, in December 2010.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-04-17/full-statement-from-afl-antidoping-tribunal-chairman-afl

They were convinced he tried to traffick it, why aren’t they willing to find out that little bit more information and corroborate his sources. … crazy to waste so much money to discover nothing concrete but still manage to manufacture a conviction and then wilfully ignoring a primary source of information, Dank, to seemingly avoid getting a slam dunk conviction of those who doped for real.

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1649

Yeap…thats been my reading all along. You missed often cellar dweller and pan handler Melbourne FC who would not have survived what was done to the EFC and of course whose coach was not a director of Gemma

1650

ASADA, accountability and contestabilty not required, CEO has the discretion to decide whether to recommend an ADRVP process.
Not much different from WADA, whose rules require that two of three established criteria are necessary for a substance or method to be banned, but does not have to inform or justify the applicable criteria. Worse, its rules also provide that a WADA determination of inclusion on the banned list is final and is not subject to challenge by athletes or others.
ASADA, a public statutory body, is a signatory to a private organisation which effectively transfers the burden of proof to athletes to prove they have not doped and which forces them to prove their case at CAS, which does not have proper appeal processes ( and hence imposes little to no discipline on its arbitrators to observe the norms of due process)

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