Bombers not given banned substances: Dank

Stephen Dank has reaffirmed his assertion that Essendon players weren’t injected with prohibited substances as part of the supplements program he oversaw.

The 34 past and present players handed infraction notices by ASADA for their part in the 2012 program will learn their fate on Tuesday when the AFL’s anti-doping tribunal hands down its verdict.

But Dank remains adamant that they were never injected with any substance that appeared on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list.

“There was no substance labelled unfit for human use,” Dank told ABC News Radio on Sunday.

“So anyone that tries to bandy that comment around – apart from the fact the comment is totally false – we are now starting to accrue our legal case against people that have suggested as such.

“Under no circumstances was anything ever injected or given to a player which was unfit for human consumption.”

Dank has long maintained that he has documentation to back up his position and clear the Bombers players.

He said that it was incorrect to say that he had declined to give out that information, but added he didn’t consider the joint AFL-ASADA investigation to be the proper forum for that evidence to be presented. “We certainly weren’t prepared to offer it either to ASADA or the AFL because, to be really blunt, of their bastardisation of this process,” he said.

“We want to leave this to a forum which is fit and proper and certainly … we would not waste our time in a kangaroo court.”

Dank said he was still considering his legal options on a wide range of issues that have arisen over the course of the Essendon scandal – in particular the 2013 report tabled by former Telstra boss Ziggy Switkowski.

“The allegations put forward in relation to a pharmacological experiment will be subject to judicial process,” he said.

“It is really laughable to even suggest that we conducted anything in a pharmacologically experimental manner.

“It was well known what was used at Essendon Football Club, so the furphy that has been portrayed by the AFL, ASADA and the Essendon Football Club, that they don’t know, is completely wrong.”

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