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Coach slams drug probe into Australian rugby league teams

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North Queensland Cowboys coach Neil Henry. Photo: AP

The handling of anti-doping investigations involving six Australian rugby league clubs has been labelled an embarrassment and a disgrace by the head coach of one of the teams.

North Queensland Cowboys coach Neil Henry said there was not a “shred of evidence” of doping among his players and slammed the probe as a slight on his club.

“The way the whole thing has been handled has been a disgrace,” Henry told reporters on Wednesday.

“To me, I think it’s embarrassing for the NRL to come out and mention there are six teams and to be forced into a situation to defend ourselves against something we don’t even know about.”

Revelations that the six clubs had been named in connection with anti-doping investigations by the country’s top criminal intelligence unit have sent shockwaves in Australia, long proud of its image as a nation that plays fair.

The naming of the NRL clubs followed the release of an Australian Crime Commission report last Thursday which had found

“widespread” doping in Australian sport.

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