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Canterbury have signed former Cronulla centre Bronson Xerri on a two-year contract starting in 2024 as the fallen star tries to revive his NRL career after serving a four-year ban for using performance-enhancing drugs.
The Bulldogs issued a statement on Friday to say they would work with the NRL Integrity Unit to “ensure full compliance is undertaken, before Bronson is able to return to the sport in November 2023”.
Xerri has not played since his impressive 22-game rookie season in 2019 after he tested positive to exogenous testosterone, androsterone, etiocholanolone and 5b-androstane-3a,17b-diol from a test on November 25 that year.
After being banned for four years midway through 2020, Xerri issued a statement to say he was “devastated but I’m bound by the system so there is not much more I can say at this stage”.
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“There is a process in place that I am required to follow. I’m shattered I’m not playing with the boys this weekend.”
He posted on social media after his appeal was denied earlier this year, writing: “One mistake and it’s all gone. I take full responsibility, I know I put myself in this position but everyone deserves a second chance.
Bronson Xerri. (Photo by Matt Blyth/Getty Images)
“I was a young kid that just wanted to get back doing what I love and all that I’ve ever known, but I’ll take this 4 year suspension on the chin and come back and show you all. For all you haters calling me a drug cheat, you all have no clue how much I put in the work to be where I was.
“And to my loyal family and friends, words can’t express how much you all mean to me. The comeback is on, 2024.”
The NRL, in rejecting the appeal, said its tribunal found “Xerri intentionally took testosterone in late 2019 knowing that the substance was either banned or that there was a serious risk that it was banned” and also that his “actions were, on his own evidence, at best grossly negligent”.
Xerri has been maintaining his fitness by doing sessions with sprint trainer Roger Fabri while he has been serving his ban.
After scoring 13 tries in his rookie season as an 18-year-old, Xerri was touted as a future representative star due to his blistering speed which caused havoc with defenders out wide.
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