Bronson Xerri: Cronulla Sharks centre’s bold call on possible four-year doping ban
In what marks the last chance for Bronson Xerri to prove his innocence, the Sharks centre has made a bold choice about arguing a four-year ban.
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Bronson Xerri will stare down his fate after declaring he wants to challenge a potential four-year ban at the NRL’s Anti-Doping Tribunal.
In what marks the last chance for Xerri to prove his innocence, the rising star’s lawyer advised the NRL Integrity Unit on Tuesday afternoon that the teenager wishes to prove why he should escape being rubbed out of the game despite returning A and B-positive samples to anabolic steroids.
Xerri, 19, is facing a four-year ban after he was provisionally stood down in May after returning a positive result for various performance-enhancing substances, including testosterone.
The hearing is likely to occur within six to eright weeks with Xerri and his lawyer Ramy Qutami needing to provide an extraordinary level of detail and information to be given any chance of avoiding a lengthy ban.
The Honourable Ian Callinan AC QC will chair the NRL Anti-Doping Tribunal - the same former High Court judge who imposed a four-year ban on Sandor Earl in 2015 and Jarrod Mullen in 2017 for anti-doping offences.
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Xerri will be required to file his submission to Callinan and a two-person panel - the final stop in the Cronulla Sharks centre’s tumultuous past four months.
The panel can’t impose a ban longer than four years - but they have the power to reduce it.
Xerri was recovering from shoulder surgery when his A-sample was taken in November last year and it’s understood the rising star will argue that he had taken the banned supplements with the purpose of aiding his recovery - not with an intention to cheat.
His argument will need to be of major significance.
Aside from testosterone, three other substances were found in Xerri’s system, including androsterone, etiocholanolone and 5b-androstane-3a,17b-diol – all of which are prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the NRL’s anti-doping policy.
Xerri was tested by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority on 25 November last year — with the result of his secondary B-sample also returning a positive reading.
The prolonged nature of the case had left the NRL and Xerri’s club Cronulla furious with process and despite obvious support for his welfare.
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Originally published as Bronson Xerri: Cronulla Sharks centre’s bold call on possible four-year doping ban