The man everybody wants to find: Former Essendon sports scientist Steve Dank in 2005 when with NRL club Manly. Source: The Daily Telegraph
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Victory University Institute of Sport's Simon Outram chats to Fox Sports News about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in light of the Essendon stimulant scandal.
Artwork: David Mcarthur Source: Herald Sun
THEY call Stephen Dank "The Pharmacist". And until late last year he was Essendon's performance scientist.
But don't go looking for his name in the club's staff registry - any trace of him as a Bombers official has now been erased.
Dank quietly left Essendon last year amid the fallout from the club's dramatic slide down the ladder.
Melbourne Football Club has since knocked him back for a job in its own football department - perhaps a rare stroke of fortune for the tanking-accused Demons.
Today, Dank and Bombers bosses have some serious explaining to do about what was going on at Windy Hill last year.
What were the substances being used by Essendon players and why has the club now asked the AFL and the Australian Anti-Doping Authority to investigate?
But Dank's practices are not unknown in Australia.
In 2005, he made headlines while working for the NRL's Manly Sea Eagles.
As the club's physiologist, Dank and the Sea Eagles created a world first in sport by using DNA testing to increase player performance.
It was also reported he had Manly players using a $300-per-litre anti-inflammatory product called Lact-Away, which is made from the bark of French pine and was initially a racehorse treatment. And then there was a product containing calves' blood extract, which helps to heal muscular injuries and increases stamina.
They all raised eyebrows but Dank soon moved on, eventually finding his way to Essendon at the start of last year after doing part-time work with Gold Coast Suns.
The Bombers make their way up the race before a match last season. Picture: Colleen Petch Source: Herald Sun
Dank has also had a long association with Essendon high-performance manager Dean Robinson, who calls himself The Weapon.
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The duo worked closely at the Sea Eagles and have always stayed in touch.
When The Weapon moved to Geelong to help the club claim the 2007 flag, he was in almost daily contact with his mate Dank.
"We discuss ideas and philosophies and a lot of them are common to both the Sea Eagles and the Cats," Robinson boasted in an interview in 2007.
But Dank is less inclined to talk about what he does.
"I don't do media interviews," Dank declared while at Manly in 2008. "What the sports science department does stays in-house."
A Melbourne Football Club spokeswoman yesterday confirmed Dank had applied for a job at the club.
"He applied for a job at the club late last year but he was unsuccessful," she said. "He has never had any direct contact with the players."
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