Seventeen past and present Cronulla players have reportedly been issued with show-cause notices over the NRL club’s 2011 supplements program.

News Corp Australia says the notices, which follow ASADA’s 18-month anti-doping investigation, were distributed at a series of meetings on Wednesday.

The players will have 10 days to respond and have the option to challenge the notices, according to the report.

Show-cause notices ask potential offenders to explain why they should not be served with infraction notices over alleged breaches of the anti-doping code.

Breaches usually carry penalties of up to two years, but can be cut to six months for those who provide “substantial assistance” to ASADA.

Sharks skipper Paul Gallen is one of the players involved and expressed his concern on Wednesday morning that by accepting reduced bans, they’ll be labelled drug cheats.

“It’s (our reputation) tarnished now already, but no matter what, if we do this we’re going to be labelled a drug cheat,” he told Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast.

“It’s a tough situation to be in.

“Our mind and our mood changes every 10 minutes. At one stage we’re (thinking) ‘thank God, this is going to be over hopefully, whatever happens is going to happen and we can just get on with life’. Because closure on this thing would just be unbelievable (after) what we’ve gone through the past two seasons.

“But then you say ‘let’s stuff this, we’ve done nothing wrong’.

“It’s a real hard situation to be in.”

Regardless, Gallen was adamant he hadn’t taken any banned substance.

“I’m 100 per cent positive I’ve never taken anything that’s been on any banned list,” he said.