ASADA integrity intact: CEO Ben McDevitt
Date
August 24, 2014 - 12:38PM
ASADA boss Ben McDevitt insists the integrity of the anti-doping body remains intact despite the perceived leniency of bans handed out to 12 past and present NRL players over Cronulla's 2011 supplements programs.
In rare public comments on ABC's Offsiders program on Sunday, McDevitt said the players were "doped and duped" and were entitled to reduced bans, that for the majority of players amount to just three NRL matches.
"I believe that everything that has happened this week is totally in line with my obligations," McDevitt said.
"It is totally in line with the national anti-doping scheme. It follows months and months of intensive investigation, conducted under the public spotlight.
"Very, very good work conducted by investigators in bring together evidence, extremely lengthy legal advice sought from multiple sources including from the person who actually wrote the code.
"So I am very comfortable that the system being what it is the code being what it is, and what I have to stick to ... that I have been maintaining the integrity of the code."
McDevitt also defended ASADA's handling of the 18-month saga.
"The reality is that I don't think ASADA was ready for an investigation of this magnitude," he said.
"And I can tell you something it is not just ASADA, I don't think any national anti-doing organisation in the world would have been ready for something of this magnitude, of this complexity, of this enormity."
McDevitt, a former assistant commissioner at the Australian Federal Police, said he had been in close contact with world anti-doping body WADA, since taking over as chief executive at the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency in May and said they were "comfortable" with the suspension meted out.
"We are on extremely firm ground," he said.
"The advice I have from WADA is that they are very comfortable with how these has been handled and the landing point we have arrived at.
"Obviously WADA will always retain their right to appeal and in fairness to them they haven't seen all the intricacies of this brief.
"But they are aware of how it has panned out, they are aware of the general flow of it, they are aware of what the players have said, they are aware of the general nature of the evidence that has been produced.
"They will never give an iron-clad guarantee but I am extremely comfortable that they believe that what we have done here is consistent with the code, is in accordance with the code.
"And I can tell you that as an administrator and as the guardian of the code in Australia there is no way that I would possibly allow us to get into a situation that what we were doing would be in breach of that code."
The 12 past and present players to have accepted the bans are Paul Gallen, Wade Graham, Anthony Tupou, Nathan Gardener, John Morris, Jeremy Smith, Kade Snowden, Matthew Wright, Albert Kelly, Luke Douglas, Josh Cordoba and Broderick Wright.
McDevitt said they were entitled to reduced bans.
"In relation to these particular players their claim is that they took performance-enhancing drugs unwittingly," he said.
"They are saying in effect that they were doped and they were duped and on the evidence we have gathered that also is a fact that actually entitles them into a reduction in the penalty.
"It is a fact they have a claim here to reduce the penalty to a one-year penalty due to having no significant fault.
"There hasn't been a single positive test in relation to these players at Cronulla, so we have had a lot of delays not attributable to the players involved.
"That entitles them under the code to seek these back-dated provisions.
"They have been back-dated for a logical reason."
