THE mother of Sharks discard Stewart Mills — one of 22 members of the 2011 squad originally in ASADA’s sights — believes Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan should be “banned for life” over the supplements scandal.
While Mills was not among the 17 past and present players who on Friday accepted back-dated 12 month bans for taking prohibited substances, his involvement in last year’s ASADA interviews took a massive toll.
Mills made a man-of-the-match debut two weeks before the 2011 supplement regime of injections, pills and creams was terminated, ensuring he would be a person of interest to ASADA during last year’s investigation.
He couldn’t breathe easy until last week, when solicitor Richard Redman rang to advise that only players who received injections over a four-week period before Mills was selected would face bans.
But the local junior’s mother, Geraldine, views his escape as little consolation and expressed great remorse for the younger players who invested enormous trust in the club’s coaching staff.
She believes that Friday’s admissions should spell the end for Flanagan, who is due to return from nine-month NRL ban for corporate governance failures on 17 September.
“I think that if these players have to take ASADA bans, then so should Flanagan,” she said.
“He should be banned for life. He should never be allowed to coach another team again.
“This whole thing has effectively ruined my son’s career, and I can’t accept the head coach had no knowledge about any of it.
“I remember at the time Stewart was talking about the team doing ‘amino acids’ — he never said ‘peptides’.
“There was also this purple stuff he kept in the fridge. It stayed there for over a year before I threw it away. I’m kicking myself now.
“The big thing is that they had no idea what conditions my child was born with. He actually has a blood disorder. They were giving him these things without knowing, and now who knows what will happen down the track.”
BENNETT SAYS FLANAGAN IS TO BLAME
Her comments resonated with Knights coach Wayne Bennett, who unleashed a furious spray at Flanagan and his former staff after losing the playing services of Jeremy Smith and Kade Snowden for the rest of the season as a result of yesterday’s ASADA deal.
“The people they trust more than anybody else in their lives and in what they do is their coaches and their staff,” Bennett said.
“They were told it wasn’t performance-enhancing. That’s been a constant since this has all happened and their trust has been breached and as a result of that, these men are now paying a price for it.”
“Yeah, the buck stops within the group that told them this was okay to do this.”
SHARKS ROOKIES MAY FILL BIG BOOTS
Flanagan has steadfastly maintained he had no knowledge of the injections until former club doctor, David Givney, called a crisis meeting on April 6, 2011.
His recollection contrasts with that of former strength and conditioning coach, Trent Elkin, who worked closest with sports scientist Stephen Dank to devise and carry-out the supplement program.
Elkin has maintained — publicly and to ASADA last year — that Flanagan was aware of the injections from the start.
ASADA BANS WON’T WIPE PLAYER RECORDS
The Daily Telegraph understands ASADA will use the 17 confessions as evidence to prosecute anti-doping charges against Cronulla support staff, which could include Flanagan, Elkin and trainer Mark Noakes.
Although Flanagan did not possess or administer any of the banned substances, there is a broad provision in the WADA Code to nab support staff for “assisting, encouraging, aiding, abetting, covering up or any other type of complicity involving an anti-doping rule violation.”
If it were established that Flanagan knew, he could be held liable because he was ultimately responsible for the football department.
Elkin has already admitted to injecting at least one player, putting him in the firing line to be banned for administration.
He is still serving an NRL ban imposed last December, which is not due to expire until December 2015.
Noakes was the club’s doping officer at the time, and an internal investigation found he was asked to bring a sharps disposal container to training while the injections were taking place in 2011.
He was one of four staff sacked on the basis of that investigation last March, but returned to work in July 2013 after commencing an unfair dismissal claim.
Meanwhile, Mills has been left in park football purgatory.
He’s playing out this season with Helensburgh Tigers after a switch to Brisbane went awry in June, and working on a building site to make ends meet.
“It’s been mentally draining and he basically feels his career was finished before it started,” Geraldine said.
“When he came back from Brisbane to live with us he was in a bad place. He was down, disheartened and sick of being screwed.”
