AN AUSTRALIAN Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation into rugby league could deliver the code embarrassing information on the numbers of players using recreational and performance-enhancing substances.
Drug testers have been hitting a range of rugby league clubs in a targeted swoop both in and out of competition in the past month, and an announcement of a positive test is expected soon. Gauging by the early morning - pre-6am - arrivals at the homes of some players, it appears the ASADA testers may be looking for evidence of human growth hormones or erythropoietin (EPO) abuse.
A host of NRL clubs have reported a sudden spike in the arrival of testers in the past month, including Penrith, Cronulla, St George Illawarra, Wests Tigers, the Bulldogs and South Sydney.
The NRL tests for social drugs on competition days only on the grounds substances like cocaine are performance-enhancing stimulants.
Because cocaine and ecstasy leave the body quickly, usually within two days, a player tested following a Friday night match often has it out of his system by the time of his next ASADA-sanctioned competition test.
However, heavy users of social drugs, rare in Australian sport but common in the US, are exposed on match day because the substance is still in their system.
The NRL asks ASADA to conduct half-screen tests on non-match days but these are designed to essentially detect steroids. However, the drug of choice of young athletes determined to build up body mass in order to perform better on the field, or train harder, is human growth hormone. This substance is only detectable by a blood test within four hours of use.
An athlete who injects himself at midnight and then retires to bed would probably need to be woken by ASADA at 2am. In any case, most sports allow only urine tests, not blood sampling.
Human growth hormone, available in most anti-ageing clinics, is also within the budget range of even Premier League players, a month's course selling for $600.
EPO is more easily detected when the urine is at its most concentrated, which is first thing in the morning and before athletes have had a chance to drink lots of water. EPO is known as an endurance drug because it thickens the blood with more oxygen-carrying red blood cells, but even sprinters, including, reportedly, the former Olympic champion Marion Jones, have been caught using it.
The chairman and chief executive of ASADA, Richard Ings, admitted the widespread powers of ASADA meant the agency did not have to rely on drugs tests. "How else do you detect what is not detectable?" Ings asked of the 20-year battle between drugs cheaters and drugs catchers.
The agency has also been conducting an enquiry into weightlifting. It devoted significant resources to the inquiry and it is expected to make an announcement soon.
In the Penrith dressing-rooms following their surprise victory over Cronulla, a Panthers official remarked how the drugs testing had become "suddenly very pronounced".
"Just the last couple of weeks there has been a bit more activity," he said. "We have even had the testers lob very early in the morning, which has happened in the past, but it is happening again."
The testing blitz was also a topic of discussion in the dressing rooms at Jubilee Stadium after last Sunday's Dragons-Tigers clash, and the testers were also at Aussie Stadium for the Parramatta-Roosters match.
All clubs surveyed by the Herald yesterday agreed there had been an increase in the number of visits at training, with one reporting that the drugs testers had turned up to training three times within a week.
In an unusual move, the testers have been asking for certain players they want to test rather than randomly selecting players. One club also reported that they had been asking for six players at a time.
"They've certainly seem to have been around a fair bit over the past month," one chief executive told the Herald.
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