Collingwood pair Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas have tested positive to clenbuterol, threatening their careers and rocking the AFL with a fresh doping scandal.
The timing could not be worse for the game, with news of the positive tests coming a day before the AFL anti-doping tribunal’s Essendon verdicts and in the same week that the season starts.
“I hope it (the buildup to round one) is not all taken away, but it’s incredibly disappointing,” AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan told Fox Footy.
“I have to say that one, I didn’t see it coming and I’m incredibly disappointed and frustrated.”
It also means the AFL has had four positive tests in the last two years.
Those are separate to the Essendon supplements saga, now in its third year and the reason for Tuesday’s anti-doping tribunal verdicts on 34 current and past Bombers players.
Keeffe and Thomas tested positive on February 10, two days after the team returned from a New Zealand training camp.
The pair are under provisional suspension.
Their B samples will be tested on April 14, but this is expected to be a formality and they most likely will have to front the anti-doping tribunal.
Clenbuterol is the banned substance that cost Spanish cycling ace Alberto Contador his 2010 Tour de France title because of a positive test.
Australian cycling star Michael Rogers also tested positive to clenbuterol, but was cleared on appeal.
Contador and Rogers had the same defence – that they ate contaminated meat.
ASADA broke the news to Keeffe and Thomas on Friday and it is so far unclear what might have caused the positive tests.
“They’re at a complete loss to understand where the positive test has come from,” Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley told Fox Footy’s AFL 360 program.
“They’re very decent, upstanding young men.
“This is nearly a standard line, (but) if you asked me a couple who I wouldn’t have thought would have ever tested positive to anything, then they’d be right up there.
“They’re cleanskins and yet they’ve returned a positive sample.”
Collingwood are adamant the positive tests have no connection to their own dietary and supplements program.
Buckley said Keeffe and Thomas were roommates on the NZ trip and are best mates.
“In many ways, they’ve been joined at the hip their whole career,” he said.
Their coach added there was no logical reason why they would take a banned substance such as clenbuterol, which helps build muscle and burn fat.
He noted Keeffe and Thomas had overcome serious injury problems in the last few years.
“Both of these boys have had reasons throughout their career where they might want to go to it (taking banned substances) … but they’ve had their opportunities and they haven’t,” Buckley said.
“They’ve just worked hard and plugged away and they’re right in the sweet spot of their careers.
“We’re devastated for them.”
It is understood there were tense negotiations between Collingwood and the AFL Players Association on Monday before the announcement of the positive tests and the identities of the players were revealed.
Normally, if a sportsperson tests positive, he or she stays anonymous until the B sample confirms the result.
But Collingwood wanted the names revealed as soon as possible.
Buckley, Magpies chief executive Gary Pert and club football manager Neil Balme spoke briefly to the two players on Friday.
The club hopes to talk to them again at greater length on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Buckley said Keeffe would not have played in Saturday night’s round-one game against Brisbane, but Thomas was “well in the mix”.
Also in the last two years, St Kilda small forward Ahmed Saad served an 18-month ban for testing positive to a banned substance in an energy drink.
And Fremantle midfielder Ryan Crowley is suspended until he goes before the anti-doping tribunal on May 1, having tested positive to a specified substance found in a painkiller.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Because the rumour mill was churning and Collingwood were aiming to end the speculation which was falling over the whole list as to who had been done.
Gecko
Guest
Why did Collingwood want their names released before the B sample was taken?
Radelaide
Guest
Players would pull out with an injury when given the heads up that testers are in town.
Pete from Sydney
Guest
slunk off somewhere with his tail between his legs...hopefully watching the '84 GF
Smokey
Guest
EFC players found NOT GUILTY............ Where are you andyl12.
pjm
Roar Rookie
4 year ban now.
GazzaW
Guest
This is really stupid by these players especially considering what being going on. If the B sample comes back positive then it's a two year ban. If collingwood supplied it and i don't believe they could be that stupid then i hope what happened to essendon happens to them.
Max
Guest
How many Pies players were tested in this sweep or were they the only ones spot tested. 2 Queensland players at Australias biggest AFL club in Melbourne announced the day when 2GB (Sydney NRL station ) Alan Jones pulls out an Essendon conspiracy theory regarding the AFL just as their season launches. Interesting...
Casper
Guest
You cannot compare the Essendon situation to Ben Cousins or your favourite, Lance Armstrong. We are talking 34 players here and not one positive sample. The AFL knew there was a supplements program going on, the players weren't trying to dodge ASADA or the AFL, yet none of the 34 players produced a positive sample.
pjm
Roar Rookie
Maybe they got their MDMA and Clen pills mixed up.
Pete from Sydney
Guest
See Samw that's where you betray all your prejudices against Essendon. The Tribunal will announce its findings today, the strong tip is not guilty, they won't be banned for a long time, Hird did show any contempt, he, as is his legal right, appealed the findings, as will ASADA/WADA when today's findings come down. There has been a plethora of pro AFL/ASADA shrills as well, they don't get a mention in your diatribe...once again displaying the lack of balance that has been the hallmark of this debacle Finally to blame these two players' issues on Essendon smacks of desperation, if anyone thinks that the past two years have been a walk in the park for the club/players/players families or supporters of the EFC you are delusional, and every other player in every other team would be doing everything they can to avoid the same sad circus.
MACDUB
Guest
Yes. I don't think NZ meat is to blame..our meat wouldn't have it in it. Clen in meat is something you expect from China, Mexico etc. but not NZ. Very very interesting though. The articles I've read suggested that they tested positive on February 10. I suspect they flew home on February 8 (a day after the last day of training camp in QTWN). Since Clen will only stay in your system for 72 hours max and probably 1 week (with an ASADA drug test), this means they either: a) took it in NZ sometime between Feb 3 - 10 or took it in Melbourne on Feb 8/9 or even Feb 10. This is gripping.
Pete from Sydney
Guest
he shaved his body if I remember correctly
pjm
Roar Rookie
NZ isn't China, they don't allow beef with clen in it. Even then they can tell by the amount of clen in their system whether it was ingested via meat or taken directly.
johno
Guest
Cousins never tested positive once.....
Radelaide
Guest
Listening to Dr Larkins he said to eat meat that is tainted they would need to eat it for 5 days straight to just register a little and no one else in NZ sports has had this problem because it is not found in NZ or Australian meat. If they didn't take it for performance reasons the other credible theory is because it is used as a cutting agent for cocaine they might've had some while out of the country out of drug testers reach not knowing that it was there which is what happened to a NRL player a little while back. The other suspicious point is they were both room mates on the trip and so therefore were close, but still all conjecture but my bet is they'll admit to drug use.
MACDUB
Guest
"Two Melbourne AFL players have blamed failed drug tests on steak they ate while on a pre-training camp in Queenstown. " Investigation now moves to Steak purchased and consumed in Queenstown.
AR
Guest
"Essendon players not a positive test between them and to date no evidence at Essendon of TB4 anywhere." It's amazing that people still shout "no positive tests"...as though that somehow proves Essendon's innocence. As for "to date no evidence at Essendon"...no kidding. If Essendon had kept records of what it injected its players with, this whoe saga might have been resolved 2 years ago.
mdso
Guest
The AFL is only a representation of the community, whatever is happening out there in the big wide world, is also happening in the microcosmic fish bowl of the AFL. Why the surprise? If its happening in other sports and horse racing, why would Aussie rules be immune? There haves been whispers for years about drugs in the AFL and anyone who has spoken out has been discredited. We only have to look at the West Coast schmozzle about ten years ago and figure out how the drug problem was ignored and covered up. I find it interesting anytime something happens it Hird's fault. The man has not opened his mouth throughout the whole saga. Not because he's afraid to speak but because he is gagged by both the EFC and the AFL. I look forward to the day when he can tell his side of the story. Essendon players not a positive test between them and to date no evidence at Essendon of TB4 anywhere. Its time the AFL lifted their game and both the AFL and ASADA re-wrote the rules on group sport, testing and doping.
samw
Guest
This is past ridiculous now. The past couple of years have obviously done more to promote than prevent doping. With the AFL's weak handling of this issue, ASADA's ineffectual posturing, a media full of Essendon shills, ex-footballers #standingbyhird, Hird's contempt for common sense and all his little tools running around pushing his propaganda, it wouldn't surprise me at all if more players weren't considering doping. If Essendon players aren't banned by the tribunal for a long time, then shut up shop on the AFL because the game will be full of dopers within 12 months.