FORMER Essendon high performance manager Dean Robinson has made additional claims about the club and it’s supplements program according to a story on tonight’s news by Channel 7′s chief football reporter Mark Stevens.
According to Robinson, Bombers coach James Hird was willing to push the boundaries in order to make his players bigger and stronger.
In response to a question by Luke Darcy about whether or not Hird had directly said to Stephen Dank or anyone else that “we (Essendon) should look at substances that are illegal”, Robinson said “He raised Hexarelin with us, yes”.
The segment was on air to promote the full Darcy interview of Robinson that will be on air later tonight and gave away enough to suggest that Robinson is casting himself in the role of the sole voice of reason at Essendon during the period that the scandal is alleged to have occurred.
“As far as I know, Hexarelin has GHRP-6 (a synthetic growth hormone releasing hexapeptide) in it. Therefore it is a banned substance,” said Robinson about his stance on Hexarelin and his advice to both Dank and Hird.
“I said ‘we are not touching it, we are not going there’ and shut it down.”
In additional information to emerge from the interview, Robinson also said that David Zaharakis was the only player on the team that refused to take part in the club’s controversial supplements program and that he, Robinson, made this statement in his testimony to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA).
He also revealed that the consent forms signed by the players were executed after the supplements program had already started and only after a number of players voiced their concerns.
You can see the whole segment from Channel 7 News from this link.