Last week I looked at the source of much of the problem which was a combination between the officials and Stephen Dank. Now it's time to look at the clubs and players involved. The Sharks were and still are the poster boys for this investigation and have had to endure a pretty rough season not knowing what their future might hold. It then emerged that other players scattered around the NRL, but mostly restricted to clubs who Dank had previously worked at, were also being investigated. The main man was Sandor Earl who has felt the wrath of the investigation yet still managed to receive a nice pay cheque for the interview he did with Channel 9. All this leads to a rather weird situation which saw the Roosters come under some fire for apparently positive drug tests. Although this was all sorted out pretty swiftly as being false, there was a interesting web that had been exposed, connecting players, trainers, snakes and a variety of other characters. This needs some explaining...

You have to feel for those Sharkies who have nothing to hide and have absolutely no connection to performance enhancing drugs. Their season has been magnet for drama with coaching staff fired then re-hired, media sniffing around the Shire waiting for a slip up and constant questions being asked about their integrity. Trainers, physios and coaching staff were given the flick once details began to surface which only seemed to infuriate everyone in Cronulla.

Once it came time for interviews to begin, Wade Graham showed him with a smile on his dial wearing a t-shirt, chinos and jandals. It was clear that the interview process was not going to go how ASADA had planned. Graham's lawyers made it clear that their client would not be sharing any details or naming names which meant that this process was useless. Hence after the first interview, the rest of the interviews were postponed.

As a Sharks fan myself, I'm aware of any bias that could be evident in this article. This is why it is important that the cases of Isaac 'Flash' Gordon and Josh Cordoba are raised. Alarm bells started to ring for Gordon when a bruise the length of his leg, from his groin to his foot started to appear. When going through the scary process of getting this checked out, it became apparent that Gordon's blood was extremely thin. It appears there was a connection between the negative turn of Gordon's health and his use of something called 'BB Formula' which was given to him to help him put on weight. Once it become apparent that Gordon's blood was dangerously thin, doctors revealed that one blow to the head could have easily have ended his life. The product in question should only be used on horses ... hmmm. Interestingly, according to Isaac Gordon's father, Sharks officials told them to not give any information to ASADA and to keep their mouths shut. Another hmmm moment. Josh Cordoba looks likely to follow Gordon down the path of legal action after he was misled by Sharks officials.

As the Sharks battled throughout the season to maintain a sense of calm and fight of any crazy media attention, the core of the ASADA investigation seemed to go in to hiding. Little details were revealed, little evidence was presented. This was until it emerged that Sandor Earl was going to have the spotlight turned on him and then came random murmurs that some Roosters players had tested positive for HGH. Let the web begin.

I won't spend much time on the emergence of positive HGH tests for some of the Roosters as it was resolved almost immediately, but this brought some interesting connections forward. The main man here is a bloke named Ben Darcy who is good friends with both Sandor Earl and former Roosters prop Martin Kennedy having gone to high school together. One of Darcy's associates, Khan Alameddine was the owner of the phone which was seized at customs containing the blood results of six Roosters players - three of these showed high levels of HGH.

Now rewind the clock back to September 2011 when a '22 year old fitness trainer' was detained at Munich airport after trying to export a bunch of snakes, including a rare breed of python. This was believed to have been the biggest seizure of live snakes at the airport. It has now surfaced, that said '22 year old fitness' trainer was Mr Darcy. It would be a good time to now introduce the fact that Martin Kennedy is a passionate snake man and has a business which involves breeding snakes or whatever...I've never really had much affection for snakes.

Ben Darcy was briefly employed by Sean Carolan who headed 'Nubodi'. Carolan was brought in by the Roosters to provide diet, nutrition and blood profiling services. Darcy didn't last long at Nubodi and neither did Carolan at the Roosters, who gave him the flick after he administered unauthorised blood tests on Roosters players. Carolan has a bit of a history, he also owns a company called 'Advanced Peptide Solutions' and pleaded guilty in 2006 after his horse tested positive for illegal substances. Although Carolan has done all he can to distance himself from Darcy, this doesn't explain a pretty interesting series of connections.

I'm not trying to blame anyone here, just bringing to life the connections that do exist. In New Zealand we don't get these details, we're just told that the Sharks are taking performance enhancing drugs. We have definitely not heard the last of this, the Sharks are likely to face some sort of punishment. A fine of up to a $1 million is the likely bet, with the future of the other parties involved, most notably Stephen Dank remains unclear. This will come to a climax after the World Cup