Sandor Earl

[TITAN PETE]

Sandor Earl maintains he's not a drug cheat in explosive interview on peptide use
James Hooper and Josh Massoud
The Daily Telegraph
September 26, 2013 10:30PM


Suspended NRL player Shandor Earl has made a number of stunning revelations, detailing his involvement in the use and distrubition of banned substances, but maintains he never knowingly took performance enhancing drugs.

SUSPENDED NRL star Sandor Earl maintains he is not a drug cheat and has turned the heat up on sports scientist Stephen Dank and his role at the Manly Sea Eagles and Cronulla Sharks.

In an exclusive interview aired on Channel Nine’s Footy Show on Thursday night, Earl claimed Dank told him the peptide CJC-1295 was WADA-approved.

The first player to be brought undone by the ongoing ASADA drugs-in-sport investigation, Earl also questioned why the Penrith Panthers failed to ask more questions about the medical bills for injections the club was invoiced $1160 for.

"I met with Stephen Dank at the facility where we train (at Penrith) and I was introduced to him by a strength and conditioning coach," Earl said.

"My best recollection of him is as a sports scientist. He did tell me his credentials which included working at Manly, the Sharks, the Gold Coast Suns.

"So someone like that who I believe is an employee of the club is in my opinion a reputable sports scientist and someone that’s worked at other clubs.

Sandor Earl says "not once" was he asked by the Panthers what treatment he was receiving away from the club.
"To me, whatever he had to say in a time of need, I was listening and I was interested.

"He’s been employed by other NRL clubs doing the same things, I had to assume why would this person be employed to hand out [prohibited] substances. It would make no sense."

With Today show co-host Karl Stefanovic ensuring Earl was grilled with all the most significant questions, the interview conveyed a picture of a naive 24-year-old focused on his football career.

Earl claimed Dank told him taking CJC-1295 and Thymosin could slash three months off his injury recovery time from a double shoulder reconstruction and supplied him with the peptides at Cambramatta’s Injury Care Clinic in a `cooler bag’.

"Did I ask him it was illegal? No. I asked him `can I get in trouble for this?’ and he said `No’ and he went through his process with WADA and how he goes about things and he assured me on a number of occasions that nothing was banned.


The Australian Crime Commission's investigation into drugs in sport has widened, with reports that New South Wales Origin players have been linked to cocaine and ecstasy rings.

Karl Sefanovic: "And from your perspective, at that point, you thought Penrith was fully aware of everything that he was doing?

Earl: "Well, yeah. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Karl Stefanovic: "When the word peptide is mentioned a lot of people go well hang on, the alarm bells start ringing?

Earl: "The alarm bells start ringing in 2013. Back then, there’s no way anyone knew what a peptide was in 2011. I certainly didn’t. The conversation didn’t start off with peptides. The talk was of amino acid proteins. I know what they are.

"In my mind I take them everyday. When he’s drawing up on a whiteboard pictures of molecules and things like that, well, what am I supposed to think?

Karl Stefanovic: "You have to ask don’t you. What are these things and are they illegal?

Earl: "And I did. There’s no doubt in my mind. A number of times.

Karl Sefanovic: "Did the Panthers ever ask you what sort of treatment you were getting off campus?

Earl: "No. Again, in hindsight looking back now to then, I’ve asked the question, why not? I don’t know."

Earl re-iterated the reason he was hit with the heavier charge of trafficking by ASADA was due to having transported a vial of CJC-1295 from an injury clinic Dank was working at in Mascot to Cabramatta, where Dr Ijaz Khan injected him.

In the bigger picture of staring down the barrel of a potential ban of between four years and life prior to his substantial assistance being factored in, Earl was a realist.

"Am I the idiot? I don’t believe that. Perhaps it was a story that I was given by (Dank) and it was misleading," Earl said.

"I take full responsibility for what’s happened and what’s going to happen, there’s no problem.

"But was I a victim of someone that abused his power and trust, yes I was. Was the credibility there? Yes it was.

"I don’t want people to feel sorry for me at all. People are going to make their judgements and that’s fine but I’d rather them make their judgements on the truth and the facts that I’ve said today."

Dank has repeatedly denied ever giving athletes banned substances.

[C-Whiz]

I must admit I feel pretty sorry for Sandor Earl on many points, not the least of which is the "trafficking" charge. That reads very badly on any report and it sounds like he was just doing the obvious and simple act of picking something up on his way past.

It was quite a good interview, considering it was Karl Stefanovic leading it, but the only question I have over the whole thing was Sandor Earl's constant statement about payment, stating that at no point did any money change hands.

To be honest, when was the last time anyone paid a medical bill with cash direct to the doctor? Maybe he was just making a generalisation, but it sounds a lot like a legal loophole way of getting around taking responsibility for paying a fee, one way or another (cheque, electronic etc). Just a thought.

I raise this point because apart from Dank stating who, when and where he might have also provided this drug, the only other outstanding question is who picked up the bill for Sandor Earls treatments? Their must be some easy way to track a payment made any other way besides a direct cash payment.

[Julius Sezer]

I feel kinda for Sandor but i have an instinctive feel that both him and Danks are lying about things.

[Toads]

I feel for him too.. His Parents should be held accountable for giving him such a shockin' name.

It be enough to drive anyone to drug abuse..