WHO SAID WHAT AS ASADA’S NRL PROBE CAME TO A HEAD:-
“I believe that everything that has happened this week is totally in line with my obligations. It is totally in line with the national anti-doping scheme. It follows months and months of intensive investigation, conducted under the public spotlight.” – ASADA chief executive BEN McDEVITT
“In this case, the evidence supports the fact that players were misled about the nature of the substances administered to them by people at the club who they should have been able to trust. The suspensions recognise the fact that the players were misled.” – NRL chief executive DAVE SMITH
“Life goes on and the sun is going to come up tomorrow. There are plenty of people worse off than me. You’ve just got to get on with life. I’ll let people make up their own minds.” – Cronulla skipper PAUL GALLEN, one of five current Sharks player who accepted ASADA’s offer of backdated 12-month suspensions.
“I had nothing to do with the supplement program. My mistake was trusting other people in our high performance unit. I don’t care what anyone says, when I found out about it I stopped it straight away and got rid of the person responsible.” – suspended Cronulla coach SHANE FLANAGAN.
“I could never have ushered 17 players into a room for injections without the coach knowing. Please. How ridiculous. Wouldn’t the players have been concerned if I hadn’t told Flanno or told them not to tell the coach? It’s not possible. The players knew that Flanno knew.” – Cronulla’s former strength and conditioning coach TRENT ELKIN, who is also serving a suspension imposed by the NRL.
“The only way that would happen is if coaches had convinced them or staff had convinced them it was okay and not performance-enhancing and that’s the way it has panned out.” – Newcastle coach WAYNE BENNETT after two of his players, ex-Sharks Kade Snowden and Jeremy Smith, were suspended.
“The more I hear from Wrighty what he’s been through, the more I feel he’s been let down by a lot of people who he put his trust in.” – North Queensland coach PAUL GREEN on young Cowboys winger Matt Wright a former Sharks player now suspended.
