Banned Cronulla Sharks players will be allowed to return to the NRL at midnight on Saturday following backdated ASADA suspensions.
The league informed players suspended in the Sharks 2011 supplement scandal that they can return to work this weekend after being forced to spend the past few months training in isolation.
Cronulla captain Paul Gallen and 10 other teammates, including Nathan Gardner, Wade Graham and Anthony Tupou, will be free to return to club activities after accepting backdated deals which saw the suspended players miss the final three games of the Sharks’ 2014 wooden spoon campaign.
Others players who accepted lighter ASADA deals- Newcastle’s Jeremy Smith and Kade Snowden, former Gold Coast Titans halfback Albert Kelly and prop Luke Douglas and North Queensland centre Matthew Wright- will also be allowed to return to training after missing a further three weeks of pre-season action.
Gallen is coming off a recent social media mishit for comments made over the dismissal of former Sharks chief executive Steve Noyce. The NRL announced on Wednesday that Gallen’s $35,000 fine will be donated to charities White Ribbon, which works to prevent violence against women, and the Black Dog Institute, which tackles the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mood disorders such as depression.
The Sharks added further off-season recruits this week, snapping up outside backs Gerard Beale and Kyle Stanley, dumped by St George Illawarra, to join the earlier signings of Ben Barba and Michael Ennis.
“The Sharks are a club on the rise and I’m excited about this opportunity to play with them over the next three seasons,” Beale said in a club statement.
“Add to that I’ve been living in the area for a little while now, my family is happy and settled and I’m really looking forward to the next few years.”
Photo: Renee McKay/Getty Images.
