The NRL’s anti-doping tribunal has suspended Cronulla Sharks player Bronson Xerri for the maximum four years for what it termed his “at best grossly negligent” actions.
The up-and-coming player’s career was abruptly derailed when he returned a positive result from a drugs test taken in November 2019. The sample was found to contain various performance-enhancing substances, including testosterone.
Xerri, who will now be taken off the Sharks’ playing roster, was provisionally suspended by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority in May last year and and has not played since.
His suspension will be backdated to the day his A-sample was taken, meaning he will not be able to run onto an NRL field again until the 2024 season.
“The tribunal found that Xerri intentionally took testosterone in late 2019 knowing that the substance was either banned or that there was a serious risk that it was banned,” an NRL statement read.
“The tribunal also found that Xerri’s actions were, on his own evidence, at best grossly negligent. The sanction imposed is the presumptive four-year ban for the use of serious performance enhancing substances.”
Other than testosterone, three other substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the NRL’s anti-doping policy – androsterone, etiocholanolone and 5b-androstane-3a,17b-diol – were found in his system.
The 19-year-old was one of the league’s most promising players, having burst onto the scene with 13 tries in 22 games in his debut senior season in 2019.
Earlier this week he spoke of his intention to resume his NRL career as soon as any ban had been served.
“I’m only 20 years old, so whatever time I get, I know I’m going to put my best foot forward,” he told Nine News. “I want to make my family proud again.
“I’ll tell my story [one day], it’s not what everyone thinks it is ... I made a mistake and now I have to pay the consequences.”
