Trent Elkin: 'This is my story. You be the judge.'
Date
August 2, 2014 - 12:22AM
Andrew Webster
Chief Sports Writer, The Sydney Morning Herald
Of all the tough and all-consuming days that Trent Elkin has lived in the last 18 months, the worst came on April 26 last year.
On that day, front-page stories in News Corp newspapers linked the death of former Sharks player Jon Mannah from cancer to the use of peptides. Fingers were being pointed. Some were being pointed at Elkin, the former Sharks strength and conditioning coach who had been close to Mannah during their time at Cronulla in 2011.
Elkin was driving along the Alfords Point Bridge in the Sutherland Shire to to Parramatta, where he worked at the Eels, when he was told the news.
It broke my heart, he says, struggling to get the words out. I couldnt believe it. I worked that closely with Jonny. I did so much work with him with individualised training, every day after training. Every day before his comeback (from cancer). When the story broke, I was going to work. It was horrible. That was the day I had to get some counseling. I thought about driving off the bridge at Alfords Point. But on my phone, I have a photo of my sons and Janey (Elkins wife) so it was never going to happen. So I kept driving to work.
When he arrived at Parramatta, he and Mannahs brother, Eels captain Tim, found a room and talked. I want you to know there is no way I would ever do something to harm Jonny or put him at risk, Elkin told him. It was never discussed. It was never an issue. I dont know if he took the supplements. I dont know. I didnt have a record that he did.
"Mate, I've been a big fan of yours": Elkin said Stephen Dank praised his work with the players on a shoestring budget when he came on board with the Sharks.
Then Elkin adds this, and it cuts the very core of the supplement scandal that has trashed the reputation of the Cronulla club but also come close to ruining a man and his family: In my time at Cronulla, every player trusted me. I was always honest with them. I never lied. Theres only been one person who has backed me publicly, and thats Johnny Morris. The rest have been hiding, for whatever reason.
But have you let those players down?
To a certain degree, I feel I have, he says. But never intentionally. They were the most important people in my job.
"There are others who knew it was happening": Elkin says knowledge of the supplement program at the club was not limited to himself and Stephen Dank.
Elkin tells me this in his townhouse in your average Caringbah Street in the Shire.
It is here where Elkin says players Paul Gallen, Ben Pomeroy and Morris hadnt confronted him in February as reported but came to seek his advice after Sharks-appointed lawyer Richard Redman suggested they should take a six-month early plea from ASADA.
Elkin called his then-lawyer, Colin Love, to ask for advice and then told the trio: Everything we did at Cronulla, we believed was by the book. Tell the truth and fear nothing.
And it is here, in this house, where coach Shane Flanagan had also shared a beer with Elkin as the scandal started to spin out of control.
Recalls Elkin: Flanno said, The only thing were guilty of is trusting Dank. They were his words. Janey was here and she heard it.
Jane, who works at the NRL as an event project officer, says she was witness to the conversation.
She says: Flanagan said, You need to understand were all in this together. Im not against you. The players arent against you. If were guilty of anything, its trusting Dank.
Flanagan disputes saying this.
No, I said the only thing Im guilty of is trusting Trent Elkin, the suspended Sharks coach says. And Dank. I went to his house to make sure what he told me was the truth. And he told me that it was the truth. If Trents guilty of trusting Dank, thats part of it.
It is for these reasons that the Elkins quietly, but methodically went about appealing the NRLs indefinite ban from working in rugby league.
If not for the support of many hands, including most importantly their legal team of barrister Stephen Stanton and solicitor David Hansen of Carters Law Firm, they would have lost the house where so many from Cronulla came to tell him he had done nothing wrong.
What price a mans reputation?
Says Elkin: If not for Jane, my family, loyal friends and Parramatta, Im not sure where I would be. I cant really put a word on it but no doubt we wouldnt be in the same position we are. Because Cronulla have thrown me under the bus.
For nearly a decade, Elkin was the Sharks' strength and conditioning coach. It was widely accepted he was the lowest paid in the NRL.
After the NRL fined the Sharks $1 million and suspended Flanagan and Elkin on December 17, chairman Damian Keogh told Channel Nine: I think a large part of the blame can be apportioned on Trent Elkin. Trent was the person who introduced Stephen Dank into the club and at the time had a certain position in the club. Hes also paid a high price for that now. Im not sure of the deep facts beyond that, in terms of some of things that went on.
Apart from the fact Elkin has never met Keogh who wasnt at the club in 2011 before his ticket came to power on the promise of standing by Flanagan at last years board elections it was Flanagan who insisted to the board that Elkin stay when Elkins contract was up for renewal.
Despite his low wage, Elkin was living his dream, working up from the lower grades to being named the Andrew Ettingshausen Clubman of the Year in 2008.
Soon enough, he grew frustrated at trying to prepare a team on a limited budget. As time went on, I found it difficult to prepare the players to the best of what they needed to be because I didnt have the resources. I was looking at other clubs and I realised they had all these resources and multiple staff in the physical performance area.
Towards the end of 2010, he met Dank, who had been introduced to the Sharks through statistician, Andrew Moufarrige, who is well known at most NRL clubs.
Elkin strongly denies suggestions he had been the one who had introduced Dank to Cronulla, claiming Dank met the Sharks board well before he met him.
It is important that the record states that Dank denies any wrongdoing and that any substances given to Sharks players were prohibited. He has never been sanctioned or charged.
When contacted for comment, he said of Elkin: Trent and I had a very, very close, wonderful relationship. In terms of him telling you the story, he displays the same amount of truth we displayed between ourselves.
Dank was well known in league circles before coming to the Sharks. He was the sports scientist genius who had taken Manly to another level. Stories of players injecting cows blood, under the supervision of Dank, had become the stuff of legend.
At Cronulla, Dank initially offered the use of GPS systems, and the approved recovery product called Lactaway. Early in 2011, Dank phoned Elkin.
Mate, Ive been a big fan of yours, Dank told him, according to Elkin. Having seen what you have been able to do with some of the players despite your lack of resources. I admire what youve done. Id like to provide some assistance.
Elkin says he was given approval from Flanagan and football manager Darren Mooney for Dank to assist at the club. That involved advice on programming, GPS monitoring, blood testing, hypoxic training and the use of supplements.
Recalls Elkin: It was something in my role you hear about and you think, That would be great to have. It would be great to do what the likes of Manly are doing. Manly had just been in a grand final and had been successful. It seemed like a no-brainer to get a sports scientist involved who didnt want to be paid. We were a laughing stock at Cronulla, no money, other clubs didnt respect us. I loved working there, but it would hurt when people would bag the club like that.
Pinning down the chronology of what happened at Cronulla from then on could fill a book.
In February 2011, Dank used the term peptides for the first time, says Elkin.
I remember researching what he was talking about, he recalls. He told me they were a group of amino acids and proteins. We didnt have a deep conversation about it. They asked me this in all the ASADA interviews. What did he say? They were peptides of amino acids. Thats all he said.
Elkin maintains they were never called anything else.
He never put a specific name to it ... There was never any use of the term growth hormone or GHRP-6 or CJC-1295. All bullshit. That was never discussed. If hed said to me that it was a growth hormone, a product that cant be detected, its a product thats illegal and they wont know ... No, never.
Asked about claims from former chairman Damian Irvine that the so-called horse drug Thymosin Beta 4 (TB-500) had been used on players, Elkin says: I was first alerted to this in my ASADA interviews. To say players were taking substances clearly marked for equine use only is not right. We laughed when I heard it.
Before the supplements were taken, Dank told Elkin the peptides could be taken in the forms of injection, tablet and cream.
Elkin insisted to Dank the process needed to be cleared by David Givney, the club doctor at the time.
I suggest to Elkin the mere notion of a player injecting a substance should have alerted him to the potential use of banned substances.
And I did, too, he says. Injections, we cant do that. People are going to say, Sharks are taking steroid injections. Thats what people associate it with. I told Dank that I would need to clear this with Flanno. I told Dank that he needed to make sure again that everything was 100 per cent legal. I told him this on a number of occasions. I told him that he needed to clear this with the doctor as I didnt have the knowledge or information to do so. I also told him that I would let the players decide if it was something they wanted to go ahead with.
In an email from Flanagan to Irvine in February 8 last year, four days after the ASADA press conference in Canberra, the coach claims Elkin and Dank were operating without his knowledge.
Slowly we noticed more changes in our supplement intake and our energy pre-game drink and Mr Danks involvement which we addressed, he said in the email, which was published in The Daily Telegraph. Most were described as amino acids which were taken before and after to aid in recovery.
Reflecting back on this time I regret not taking more interest in his relationship with Trent [Elkin] and probably acting a bit quicker but as you know we trusted Trent in this role and his professionalism.
On this count, Elkin is furious.
A series of text messages between Elkin and Givney, that has been submitted to ASADA and the NRL and has now been seen by Fairfax Media suggests Flanagan was aware players were injecting.
In one text, dated March 22, 2011, Givneys text reads: Hi Trent. Flanno (sic) asked me to follow up on recent injections from an ASDA (sic) point of view. Can you let me know what the substances were, so I can answer any questions from ASDA?
Elkin replied to Givney: Sure, mate. Give him (Dank) a call and he will be able to give you the info.
I remember asking Flanno about it, Elkin recalls. How could I possibly hide this from the coach that the players were getting injections? Not possible. He said, As long as everything is 100 per cent legal. If you are sure of that.
Elkin then approached the senior playing group, which included Gallen.
I talked to them about it, and said this is what Dank wants to do, he says. I never ever said, This is compulsory, you have to do it. I said, You come back and tell me if this is something you want to do. Ill let you decide. You can talk to Dank. Ask him what you like. Dank has assured me everything was 100 per cent. There was never any discussion or was it entertained that we were taking something that could not be detected. I would never ever consider that.
The response from the senior playing group was they were fine to take them, but they wanted it confined to the first grade team.
I talked to Dank on numerous occasions, says Elkin. I said, Whatever we do, everything has to be 100 per cent legal. Everything needs to go through the doctor. He assured me it was. He said, Everything I have done Ive used before; with players, other athletes. He said his sources at ASADA, his contacts at WADA, all say it was above board.
Over three weeks, with one injection per week, players were given peptides after the last training session, the day before they played. Elkin says there was no systematic doping schedule, as widely suggested.
Danks associate Darren The Gazelle Hibbert helped. Elkin helped only one player inject the supplement, on one occasion, as Hibbert was showing the players how to do it. He denies he did all the injecting.
After the third injection, on April 6, Givney contacted Flanagan via email and the coach called a staff meeting.
From the meeting, it was determined that Dank had not consulted the doc about the process, Elkin says. Dank gave a description of what the substance was. Doc was angry and concerned about who was giving the injections, and if the player might have a reaction. Or might get an infection from it. There was never any concern about the substance being illegal.
Then, at the end of May, Flanagan called Elkin into his office. We have an issue, Flanagan told him, according to Elkin. We think Dank has been talking to some players without your knowledge. The doc was concerned. The doc believed that the players were given something without your knowledge.
Elkin phoned Dank. He says: I phoned Dank and said, What is going on? They just told me you were talking to a player without my knowledge. I cant have it. You cant work with us anymore. The doc isnt happy with you. He doesnt want you working with us. We will have to cut ties.
I ask Elkin now if he had hidden the injections from Flanagan and others.
No way, says Elkin. I could never have ushered 17 players into a room for injections without the coach knowing, he scoffs. Please. How ridiculous. Wouldnt the players have been concerned if I hadnt told Flanno or told them not to tell the coach? Its not possible. The players knew that Flanno knew.
It looks better for everybody at the club if they all keep quiet about Flannos knowledge of it, that way they can continue to say it was all Elkin and all keep their jobs.
I ask Elkin if, in hindsight, he should have cleared the substances with ASADA.
Yes, I told ASADA, if I had known or been told it was CJC or GHRP as reported I wouldve researched it, Elkin replies. They kept asking me about it. I stand by that. Dank never said thats the name of the substance. He always described it just as peptides of amino acids. I couldnt comprehend that he would come in and give us an illegal substance. It didnt make any sense. The thing I kept coming back to was that he told me he had used these products extensively. Nobody at the previous club had ever failed a drug test. Nobody at Cronulla had ever failed a drug test for this so how could it be illegal?
I ask him if he can understand why many fear doping has occurred at the Sharks.
I can understand people saying that, if they buy into all the speculation, he says. All I can say is that those who know and trust me know, I wouldnt have done anything illegal. It kills me for people to think that. All the staff interviewed have said, Elk would never do anything wrong to hurt the players.
But while Elkin has never spoken to Dank since the scandal broke, he says a current Sharks coaching staff member alerted him to the fact that some players maintained the relationship with Hibbert.
Later on, I became aware of that, Elkin says. It was in 2012. I remember hearing that Hibbert was referred to as The Mechanic. The way I heard that was through a fellow staff member: Yeah the boys were talking about The Mechanic. Its ironic to think that some players have said, We trusted Elkin. We didnt know. Yet they continued to associate with Hibbert well after Dank was gone from club. Thats disappointing.
For his part, Flanagan says he never knew players were being injected until alerted by Givney.
After the doctor said he was comfortable with what was given, but not with who gave the injections, he was told that Dank was to have no relationship with the players, he says. I wasnt at the meeting. That was hearsay from my point of view. That was Dank and the doctor and the football manager. Dank was told clearly that he wasnt allowed to go to players. We found out later that sometimes he did go to the players.
Then Flanagan adds: I still believe he would never do something knowingly wrong. I dont blame Trent Elkin. I blame the system. No CEO at the club. I blame Dank. I still trust Trent Elkin and his integrity and that he would ever knowingly do something wrong by those players. I think the players believe that as well.
On February 7 last year, at a media conference at Parliament House in Canberra dubbed the blackest day in Australian sport, NRL chief executive Dave Smith asked any player or official to come forward if they had information about the use of peptides.
Elkin says his lawyer, Colin Love, contacted a senior NRL executive the following morning, wanting to tell his side of the story. He was told that an investigation unit headed by Federal Court judge Tony Whitlam QC was not yet in place. Another NRL executive was told weeks later Elkin wanted to speak.
They finally got back to him ... 10 months later.
I wasnt doing it because Dave Smith said come forward, Elkin says. It was because I was hearing everyone from Cronulla was dumping on me ... It was because I had nothing to hide and wanted the truth to be known and I believed it was the right thing to do. Thats who I am.
Dank also contacted Elkin on the Friday of that week via a text.
Are you okay? he asked. On the advice of Love, Elkin ignored it.
I was filthy at him, Elkin says.
And now?
Its a hard one. Ive thought about it and thought about it. I am so disappointed he hasnt put his hand up and said, This is what Elkin did. This is what we did with Elkin. Its disappointing because I trusted him. Be a man, be honest. Thats the most disappointing thing. Because I dont know the full truth of how he conducted himself. So how can I say, Stuff Dank. Hes given us something illegal. I still dont know. Or why he would do that. I struggle to understand this.
He remains angry at many individuals across the game. Smith is one of them, because of the convoluted NRL investigation and the toll it has taken as he has fought to clear his name. He is still to meet the NRL boss.
I wanted to meet with him and look him in the eye, man to man, Elkin says. I wanted to tell him, This is what happened. If you consider that to be wrong after you know the facts, I will accept that. But these are the facts. Not what looks best for you as the games boss. How can he determine I am not a fit or proper person to work in rugby league? I am so angry that this man sits there and makes a decision about my character and integrity when he knows absolutely nothing about me.
Elkin describes the NRL investigation as amateurish, based on interviews of five staff members at the Sharks but no players. He wonders how much of the whole picture NRL ever received. An NRL lawyer was only present at one of three interviews with ASADA investigators.
He was afforded 90 minutes with an NRL lawyer during his NRL interview, no less than 10 months after approaching them to tell his version of events.
Elkin also maintains there is conflicting evidence from Sharks coaching staff members from their NRL and ASADA interviews.
In Smiths letter to Elkin on December 17 explaining his decision to cancel his registration, he admits: I was conscious that Danks association with your club was relatively short, that you were actively misled by Dank, that you did not engage in deliberate conduct to breach the NRL Rules and that you have cooperated in the NRL Investigation.
Says Elkin: I can accept and handle that I made some bad judgments and decisions and should have been more careful. Im sorry for this. I have learned that I should have done more to ensure better procedures were carried out. There is not a day that goes by where I dont regret what has happened. What I cant accept is all the lies the findings were based on and that I was the only one who knew and responsible for this.
An NRL spokesperson said Smith stood by the way investigation into Elkin was handled.
Once ASADA began its anti-doping investigation it was not appropriate for the NRL to maintain contact with Mr Elkin, who was cooperating with ASADA, the spokesperson said. The NRL investigation was carried out by the Integrity Unit under supervision of the chief operating officer. It would be inappropriate for the CEO to be involved in the investigative phase given he is the ultimate decision maker and must consider the evidence without prejudgement.
Mr Elkin was afforded all opportunities under our rules to make written submissions to the CEO, which he did, and they were considered.
Yet the people he is most angry with are some of those he worked with at Cronulla, although not Givney, who remains the familys doctor. Elkin believes Givney has been unfairly treated. There are others who knew it was happening, Elkin says. They have said, Elkin and Dank are the only ones who knew what was going on, so they are responsible. Thats what hurts. Those people I considered friends. Some have been dishonest. I am so disappointed.
Maybe Id be in a better position today if I was dishonest and not forthcoming.
This is my story you be the judge.
