Pies stars want ‘toxic’ meat probed

AFL: Collingwood says their Magpies involved in the latest banned substances drama are as shocked as the club itself

PIES stars Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas's lawyers will probe whether steak dinners at a New Zealand restaurant caused them to test positive to a banned drug.

That unlikely scenario, 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.

The club on Monday announced Keeffe and Thomas had tested positive to muscle-boosting drug clenbuterol.

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WHAT IS CLENBUTEROL?

Josh Thomas is tackled by Lachie Keeffe during a Collingwood training session last July. Picture: Robert Prezioso, Getty Images

The positive tests came days after they returned from a Queenstown training camp in early February.

As theories swirled around how the drug got into the players' systems, sources close to the pair told the Herald Sun an investigation would be launched into whether contaminated steak was to blame.

But the club on Monday 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.

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.

AFL: 360 discuss the latest performance enhancing drugs scandal involving two Collingwood players

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.

Josh Thomas during a NAB Challenge AFL match against Carlton on March 15. Picture: Quinn Rooney, Getty Images

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.

Monday'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''.

Lachie Keeffe, and fellow Pie Josh Thomas, are at the centre of the AFL's latest drugs controversy.

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.

jon.ralph@news.com.au

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