Dank's plea to stay in the game

Essendon sports scientist Stephen Dank. Picture: James Croucher Source: The Daily Telegraph

STEPHEN Dank has been cast as the chief scientific villain in the biggest doping investigation in the history of Australian sport.

But Dank says he has never used performance-enhancing substances in the NRL, including the illegal peptide GHRP-6, and hopes to work in rugby league again.

With the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority under increasing pressure to deliver a scalp in the doping probe, sports-science guru Dank yesterday spoke for the first time about his precise involvement with NRL clubs.

In a candid interview with News Limited, Dank:

Denied issuing the banned substance Warfarin to Cronulla players;

Said he was not aware of illegal peptides being used in the NRL;

Revealed his supplementation regime at Manly played only a minor role in their 2008 premiership win;

Claimed a lack of knowledge of sports science had fuelled baseless suspicions about doping in the NRL.

Dank's involvement with AFL club Essendon remains under ASADA investigation, but the besieged sports scientist insists he never presided over an NRL doping regime and is keen to return to the sport.

"I have done nothing illegal with any club in the NRL," said Dank, who met with his legal team last night to explore defamation proceedings.

"Not one player under my care has ever tested positive to performance-enhancing drugs.

"The truth is I would love to work in the NRL again. At the end of the day, I love helping athletes and I have ideas, legal ones, which I think can contribute to rugby league.

"All this (doping allegations) upsets me deeply because it is not true. I am not a doping scientist or a cheat.

"People ask me to test the boundaries and to find an edge.

"I try and maximise athletic performance, but I do it legally. I never cross the line. Simple."

Asked if he had an ongoing involvement with individual NRL players, as flagged in the Australian Crime Commission report, Dank said: "No."

Asked if NRL hierarchy had directly flagged doping concerns with him, Dank said: "Never. No club has raised anything against me with the NRL."

News Limited has obtained the high-performance program issued to NRL clubs detailing Dank's methods. Much of the program relates to the use of hyperbaric chambers, blood-testing, DNA profiling and training technology underpinned by GPS tracking systems.

There is no mention of peptides, the controversial supplement at the centre of the ACC's probe into AFL powerhouse Essendon and illicit drug use in Australian sport.

Dank piqued the interest of ACC investigators over his scientific methods at Manly, Penrith and Cronulla, including the possible use of Warfarin, a blood-thinning agent to promote anaerobic capacity, at the Sharks.

Asked if illegal peptide use exists in the NRL, Dank said: "There are legal peptides in protein shakes used by NRL athletes and footballers around the world.

"But I certainly don't believe there are performance-enhancing drugs in the Australian sporting landscape such as the growth hormones and testosterone stuff being talked about.

"There are peptides in various protein supplements, but many are legal and freely available."

Dank also lifted the lid on his methods at Manly, saying ill-informed critics were confusing the guarding of intellectual property with "something scurrilous".

"Sports scientists like myself aren't proponents of anything illegal," he said.

"It annoys me and hurts me because at the end of the day, Manly were a success story because of their coach, their players and their work ethic.

"We looked at periodisation of players training, how they recovered, the supplement program was only a small cog to be perfectly honest.

"In terms of science, we do barely anything in Australian sport. The way we train, the way we supplement athletes and the way things are done generally borders on mediocrity.

"Rugby league has the greatest untapped potential of any sport in this country and possibly any sport in the world."

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