This shows just how uninformed and vindictive Hooper and Kent are.
From Weidler in the SMH
For most of this week, the teenager touted as the fastest man in rugby league has been flat on his back in bed. Meanwhile, Bronson Xerri's club Cronulla has been on its knees, defending itself against claims it has a drug culture. More specifically, assertions it did not do enough to guard against the situation in which Xerri finds himself.
Xerri faces the prospect of a four-year ban after returning a positive A-sample for exogenous testosterone, androsterone, etiocholanolone and 5b-androstane-3a, 17b-diol from a test on November 25 last year. The 19-year-old, who has supplied no explanation for the detection, is a B-sample away from becoming another cautionary rugby league tale.
However, claims Cronulla turned a blind eye appear well off the mark. This column can reveal Xerri has been drug tested eight times since November 2018, three times by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and five times by the Sharks. The seventh test produced the positive result, while sources close to Xerri have told me he passed a test earlier this year.
Since November 2018, 164 tests have been conducted on Sharks players. The breakdown is:
Based on those figures, ASADA's level of interest in Xerri increased in recent times. His November 25 test was a blood test. His others have been urine tests. The blood test that produced the positive result to a cocktail of banned substances was provided while he was in Cronulla's rehab group. Xerri also had an ASADA urine test in March, which I am told he passed. Today, with unprecedented access to player records, we can reveal how Cronulla have monitored Xerri's physical development. The aim is to track his progress but, as with any professional sportsman, red flags are always cause for concern.
The documents obtained by this column support the view at Cronulla that there were no warning signs before or after Xerri's shoulder surgeries on September 24 and October 8 last year. The Sharks say his physical gains were consistent with those achieved by most players.
This is not a defence of Xerri. ASADA, for its many faults, does not make up positive drug-test results. If the B-sample also returns positive, he will have his day of reckoning and his chance to explain.
Xerri has been on the Sharks' radar from a young age. In 2015, Cronulla coach John Morris, then the club's elite development coach, introduced a program for the young players, who went in at 6am before school twice a week and partook in weights, skills and speed training. The Sharks also delivered education modules, including on drugs and alcohol.
It was the Sharks' talent factory. Players to graduate from the academy and transition into the NRL include Jayden and Blayke Brailey, Curtis Scott, Kyle Flanagan, Jaeman Salmon, Billy Magoulias, Ronaldo Mulitalo, Briton Nikora, Will Kennedy, Sione Katoa and Xerri.
In that first season the program netted Cronulla SG Ball and Harold Matthews titles. According to those who know, Xerri was drug tested after the Harold Matthews win and passed. The Sharks have documented Xerri's body shape and physical performances from November 2017. While these are Cronulla's own records, one thing stands out: Xerri's results are unremarkable. There are no strange peaks in performance; no stunning strength gains.
In deadlift, bench press and bench pull, the club found no significant increases in performance. His squat performance did spike (22 per cent) from 2017 to 2018, but not much after that, and squat results have dropped off in recent years.
There are also thorough body composition records. In November 2018, Xerri weighed 96.4 kilograms, 50.9 per cent of which was muscle. In January of last year, he recorded a muscle composition of 53.2 per cent and an overall weight of 94.5kg. On the day he tested positive, he weighed 96.6kg and carried 48.3 per cent muscle. His last recorded measurements, on May 25 this year, just before he was banned, show Xerri weighed 96.3kg and had 51.9 per cent muscle.
The only stats that stand out to me were post-surgery. Eight weeks after his second operation he had 48.3kg of muscle and 13.3kg of fat in a body composition test. The last stat going into surgery was 48.1kg of muscle and 12.8kg of fat. I have nothing to compare this to, so they may be standard gains.
I can also reveal ASADA received Xerri's positive test results from its laboratory on April 7. However, it did not write to him until May 22. This may have been due to the complexity of the case.
As we pointed out earlier, Xerri was tested again in March. I have been told he passed. On Wednesday, the day after the news broke, the Sharks were in complete shock. Xerri's manager David Riolo told Cronulla's general manager of football Phil Moss who, the following day, requested all of Xerri's data be examined. It duly was. Nothing stood out.
Morris is known to be unhappy with slurs claiming the club either did not keep a close enough eye on their young star or turned a blind eye. From everything I have seen, the club was doing what it could.
