Banned Dank to take on AFL chiefs

STEPHEN Dank last night took aim at AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan after a league tribunal slapped him with a lifetime ban.

The mastermind of Essendon’s 2012 drugs program declared he would be “going after” McLachlan and former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou in court.

“We will now accelerate our legal action against the AFL and individual members of its executive who are responsible for this decision being handed down,” Dank said.

“They have contaminated the truth and impaired natural justice, and now they will feel the full thrust of the law in relation to how they’ve handled this process.

“I will leave no stone unturned in pursuing justice.”

Yesterday’s AFL anti-doping tribunal verdict means Dank cannot work again in any major Australian sport.

The sports scientist last night fired off an email to an AFL anti-doping tribunal associate, warning of pending legal action against several parties involved in the Essendon investigation.

The AFL and ASADA yesterday welcomed the verdict against Dank.

ASADA chief Ben McDevitt repeated his view that Dank “should never be allowed near any sporting venue or any athlete anywhere in the world, ever”.

“This ruling by the AFL anti-doping tribunal has confirmed my view,” he said.

Dank was found guilty in April of 10 of 34 violations of the AFL anti-doping code, including trafficking, attempting to traffic and “complicity in matters related to a range of prohibited substances”.

The breaches he was found guilty of took place when Dank was working at Essendon in 2012 and at the Gold Coast Suns in 2010.

I will leave no stone unturned in pursuing justice STEPHEN DANK