Collingwood stars Lachie Keeffe, Josh Thomas accused of taking banned muscle-boosting drug, want ‘toxic’ meat probed
UPDATE: COLLINGWOOD coach Nathan Buckley says news of positive drugs tests by two players will “galvanise” the team for Round 1.
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UPDATE: COLLINGWOOD’S playing group was rocked by news of the positive drugs tests by Josh Thomas and Lachie Keeffe, but coach Nathan Buckley has insisted it will “galvanise” the team ahead of Saturday night’s Round 1 clash against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.
Buckley said today teammates of Thomas and Keeffe, who tested positive to the performance-enhancing drug clenbuterol on February 10, were doing their best to remain focused on football after the shock news.
Pies coach Nathan Buckley has also confirmed AFL medical commissioner Peter Harcourt visited the club on February 10 to warn the players about drugs.
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“They’re shocked,” Buckley said. “We don’t plan for this; we don’t expect it.
“(But) we are fully focused on preparing for this week. Internally, we are clearly moving forward over here with what we need to do with Josh and Lachie, but the football club is focused on preparing and performing on Saturday night.”
Collingwood president Eddie McGuire said this morning that both players faced the sack if found guilty, with the results of a B Sample for both players not to be known until April 14.
McGuire the two players deserved the presumption of innocence, saying they were “flabbergasted” and “completely devastated” at the positive drugs test.
However he said after ruling out any wrongdoings with the club’s own supplements program, the players may face the sack if a positive B sample is returned.
“My situation on this has never changed ever,” McGuire told Triple M.
“And that is if you’re guilty, out you go and if you’re not, well, we’ll fight for your rights.
“We’ll support the players as much as we do everybody at the Collingwood Football Club which is completely.
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Buckley would not comment on the future of the players, saying there was still so much information to be known before any opinion could be reached.
“That’s the stark reality that Josh and Lachie find themselves in,” Buckley said of the question mark on their playing futures.
“Ignorance is no excuse, (but) there is still plenty of information that we need to understand to get to the bottom of that.”
MEANWHILE, the New Zealand beef industry say it’s not to blame for Collingwood stars Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas testing positive to banned drug clenbuterol after their lawyers said they would probe whether steak dinners at a restaurant were to blame.
The positive tests came days after the duo returned from a Queenstown training camp in early February.
Sources close to the players have asserted that they ate out at several establishments during the camp, including steak on Friday, February 7, before being tested in Melbourne the following Monday.
Clenbuterol is used by some countries in livestock but chairman of the New Zealand beef industry association chairman Bill Falconer today told 3AW that the claim was fanciful.
“Let me tell you that there would be no evidence or incident of it before in our history,” he said.
“It’s just not something that has cropped up in New Zealand — obviously you can read stuff to say that there had been rumours of it happening in China and Spain but not in New Zealand.”
Former ASADA boss Richard Ings agreed, telling 3AW: “Clenbuterol is not present in the Australian food chain. It is not present in the New Zealand food chain, it has occurred in China and Mexico but it’s not an issue here. So the players will need to find the right explanation where this Clenbuterol came from.
“It’s a veterinary drug in Australia, it’s a veterinary drug in New Zealand it’s only approved for use in racehorses. But as with all these performance enhancing drugs you can get it online and there is a person at the back of some gyms that will sell it to you. It is commonly abused in bodybuilding and other sporting activities.”
The unlikely scenario of contaminated steak, which even the club privately discounts, is one of the defences that would spare the duo from bans of up to four years and the sack from Collingwood.
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On Tuesday morning, Richmond midfielder Brett Deledio says the club’s supplements tracking system is a burden on players but gives him confidence everything at Pt Road is above board.
“You’ve got to tick off everything these days,” Deledio said.
“We fill out a form online every week to make sure we notify the AFL and the doctors of what we’re taking. We do clarify and check, double check. It is onerous at times but that’s what you’ve got to do as a professional athlete.
“I just feel at ease I suppose.
“The good thing about it here at Richmond is any questions we’ve got we just go straight to the doc or to our nutritionist and it clears it up for us straight away.
“So if you’ve got any doubts, ask a question and therefore you should eliminate most risk.”
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Collingwood last night conceded the pair faced an almost impossible task of justifying why they tested positive, and it was sceptical about the steak explanation.
Keeffe and Thomas face maximum four-year bans if found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs, because on January 1 the AFL adopted a stricter WADA code.
The Pies would be forced to sack the former housemates, who roomed together in New Zealand, if long suspensions are confirmed.
The Pies bombshell comes ahead of Tuesday’s AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal verdict regarding 34 Essendon players accused of using banned substances in 2012.
AFL says it is looking at its drug codes. The silliest stat is only 14 second strikes in 10 years of testing. Surely that doesn't ring true
— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) March 30, 2015
Champion Australian cyclist Michael Rogers escaped a ban last year after it was accepted tainted meat from a Chinese restaurant was the likely cause of a positive test for clenbuterol.
The drug has been found in meat products in China and Mexico.
Keeffe and Thomas, both out of contract at season’s end, were told on Friday they had tested positive to the drug, which strips fat and builds muscle.
Both were said to be “shell-shocked” but had been unable to provide any explanation as to how the drug may have entered their system.
ASADA said clenbuterol was an anabolic agent prohibited in and out of competition.
The club said an audit by integrity officer Robert Cockerill, a former AFP officer, found its dietary and nutrition program could not have been responsible for the positive tests.
The Herald Sun understands the pair will again face ASADA investigators on April 13 to plead their case, with their B samples being tested a day later.
But insiders claimed it would be “a miracle” if the B sample came up clear, which will set in chain an eventual AFL anti-doping tribunal verdict.
Any Anti-Doping Tribunal date before late May seems unlikely given Essendon and Fremantle’s Ryan Crowley both have cases to hear first.
Yesterday’s developments came as a war broke out between the Pies and the players’ union, which was frustrated at Collingwood revealing details of the pair’s breaches.
But the club was determined to be transparent in the week before its Round 1 clash against Brisbane.
The club’s football manager, Neil Balme, said the players were devastated and he hoped there would be a “good outcome’’.
It is understood the players have claimed they did not take any supplements sourced from outside the club, and did not consume spiked drinks.
The developing scandal
Late January/early February: Collingwood undertakes seven-day pre-season training camp in Queenstown, New Zealand.
February 10: ASADA collects standard out-of-competition samples from Lachlan Keeffe and Joshua Thomas, back in Melbourne.
March 6: ASADA launches probe after advice from a WADA-accredited laboratory on “A” samples, which both tested positive for banned substance clenbuterol.
Friday, March 27: Close friends Keeffe and Thomas are notified by ASADA of the test results and investigation. Collingwood launches an audit into its dietary and nutrition programs.
Monday, March 30: Coach Nathan Buckley breaks news to other players. Magpies announce the pair have begun serving provisional suspensions as probe continues. Club declares after “forensic” audit that positive tests cannot be linked to its programs.
Saturday, April 4: Pies to kick off season against Brisbane Lions.
April 14: Players’ “B” samples due to be tested.
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