Webcke slams ASADA's investigation process and says it's time to deliver
Date
May 2, 2013
Adrian Proszenko
Chief Rugby League Reporter
Shane Webcke, the rugby league great who inadvertently came into the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority's crosshairs after testing positive to a banned substance, has described the agency's handling of the latest crisis as ''the most ludicrous operation of an enforcement agency you could ever see''.
Webcke revealed in his biography that he tested positive for probenecid after the opening game of the 2001 season. The staunch anti-drug campaigner escaped a ban after he was prescribed the drug to treat a serious knee infection. ASADA and the NRL dealt with the matter in-house, accepting the doctor made an innocent mistake in failing to register the prescription. Wallabies winger Ben Tune was stood down for taking the same drug that year.
While Webcke said the new investigation, in which 31 NRL players had received interview requests from ASADA, was a ''different situation'', he believed the agency's handling of the matter had unnecessarily tarnished the game.
''That's what I don't understand. With the seriousness of this, if the wrong thing has been done - and surely they would know - then act on it,'' Webcke said. ''They keep saying the wrong thing has been done but why then has nothing happened? It's the most ludicrous operation of an enforcement agency you could ever see. I support the process … of eradicating performance-enhancing drugs from our game.
''If there are players or clubs that have done the wrong thing, they should feel the full brunt of the legislation. But equally, if there is nothing there, it continues to be a blight on the game.''
Webcke - who represented Brisbane, Queensland and Australia - is proof that you can reach the top without using supplements. While his choice was not to take them, he said he and his teammates would never question anything handed out by club officials.
''We had full faith that they would never do anything to harm a player,'' he said.
The 38-year-old fears that a club such as Cronulla could have their season torn apart if ASADA doesn't have enough evidence to make a doping violation stick.
''It's a disgrace,'' he said. ''The government have said this and that, 'it's terrible and we're going to clean it up' - well if it comes to nothing, where is the compensation for these people and what they've been through?''
Speaking about his own drugs drama, he said: ''I was in hospital and the [infection] was running rampant through my knee. If it got into my bloodstream it would have killed me. In that instance, there wasn't any potential gain of anything except this infection was very dangerous.''
The impasse between ASADA and NRL players continues after Shark Wade Graham's grilling was abandoned mid-interview. ARL Commission boss Dave Smith will read the transcript of the interview after Graham's legal representative advised him not to provide information on teammates in return for a reduced suspension. There was a suggestion that there may be a conflict of interest that Graham's lawyer was also acting for the other Cronulla players of interest. However, Sharks general manager of football, Steve Noyce, said he was comfortable with the situation.
''These are senior legal counsel we have and they've been aware of the fact they are representing a number of players,'' he said. ''They certainly haven't flagged it.''
