Manly chief executive David Perry claims the Sea Eagles have been told they are at a “low to medium risk” in relation to the severity of their involvement in the investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

The six clubs mentioned in the Australian Crime Commission’s (ACC) report were on Tuesday briefed by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) in Sydney.

Representatives from the Sea Eagles, Penrith, Cronulla, Canberra, North Queensland and Newcastle were spoken to both as a group and individually.

While none of the clubs were given specific information as to what ASADA was investigating or which players were involved, Perry said all representatives left the briefing in full support of the anti-doping agency’s process.

“It will take a bit of time the process … as far interviewing specific people and we’ll support ASADA with that process,” Perry said.

“We’re (Manly) probably at low to medium risk around this but until we get more information from ASADA and being able to speak to the players potentially involved, we can’t make any further comment.

“It’s a confidential process in respect to those they want to speak to but even those who they do speak to aren’t necessarily guilty of any wrongdoing, it’s just a process they’ve got to go through.

“They definitely didn’t talk about any names … no, they didn’t give us numbers but they did say it was a small to medium risk.”

Panthers general manager Phil Gould, who was last week highly critical of the broad-brush nature in which the report was made public, was far more positive as to the investigations undertaken by ASADA following the briefing.

“I’ve been well informed of what they are looking at and how long this process will take and how serious it is and at the end of the day we totally support the process and totally support the work the NRL is doing,” Gould said.

“I’m far clearer today than I was yesterday.”

Earlier on Tuesday, NRL chief executive David Smith said he could not give a timeline on how long the ongoing investigations would take or when specific details might be made public.

“It (the briefings will ASADA) will take the ongoing investigations to the next stage,” Smith said.

“I can’t pre-judge how long that will take.”

It remains to be seen if ASADA’s briefing will satisfy Newcastle coach Wayne Bennett after he was highly critical of the situation.

Investigators from auditors Deloitte visited the Knights last week, seven-time premiership-winning coach Bennett saying they checked on records as far back as seven years ago.

“They want us to confess to something. I’m racking my head what we’ve got to confess to,” said Bennett.

“I’ve been through the staff, I’ve checked with all the players.

“Whatever they’re looking for, it hasn’t happened in the past 18 months. So after that I’ve got no idea.

“The information we’re getting when they arrived here last week looking for records … they were certainly talking about other years as far back as 2005 perhaps.

“We’ve just got no idea. We’ve complied with everything they’ve asked for and we’ll continue to do that.

“We’ve got nothing to hide, not since I’ve been here anyway.”

Penrith captain Kevin Kingston said he was confident the club does not have a `drug problem’.

“We trust our sports scientists. We don’t take anything out of the ordinary. I barely take protein myself,” Kingston said.

“I don’t think there is a drug problem at our club.”