LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: When the scandal over doping in football erupted last week, the questions immediately seemed to centre on the role of one man, scientist Steve Dank. Dank had previously worked for AFL club Essendon and five NRL clubs, including premiership winner Manly.

Tonight, Steve Dank breaks his silence in an exclusive interview with 7.30 to refute accusations he gave players illegal substances.

He says officials at Essendon, including the coach, were fully aware of all aspects of the supplements program.

Here's reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA, REPORTER: Last week, most Australians had no idea who this man was. Yet today, Steve Dank is the man everyone is waiting to hear from.

Steve, I'm gonna put to you firstly: you've been described over the previous days as the suited physiologist and the pharmacist. Who exactly are you?

STEVE DANK, BIOCHEMIST: Well I'm a scientist, a biochemist by trade, and over the last couple of years I've been working more in the area of biochemistry from a rejuvenation point of view. My PhD to be - just to be submitted now is in pharmacology.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Steve Dank is at the centre of the furore that erupted last week when officials at AFL club Essendon called a surprise press conference, announcing they had reported themselves to governing body ASADA. Essendon management cited a supplements regime administered to its players in 2012, the very year Steve Dank was in charge.

DAVID EVANS, CHAIRMAN, ESSENDON FOOTBALL CLUB (Feb. 5): Over the last 48 hours the Essendon Football Club has received information about supplements that have been given to our players as part of the fitness program in 2012.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Today Steve Dank has decided it's his turn to talk and he's not going down quietly.

Were Essendon officials then in the dark as they have claimed?

STEVE DANK: In terms of the program, no.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The supplements regime that was devised for Essendon players, in terms of the information that you shared with Essendon officials and management and coaching staff, was everyone aware of what was involved in that regime?

STEVE DANK: Yes, yes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: From the coach to management?

STEVE DANK: Yes. Yeah, I mean, there was sometimes where a player would be sort of with me in consultation and then there would be times where a coach may or may not be present. So, yeah, there were times where - the coaches were sort of well aware of what was happening.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Last week, Essendon officials and coach James Hird said they had only just learnt about concerns regarding their supplements program.

JAMES HIRD, COACH, ESSENDON FOOTBALL CLUB (Feb. 5): My understanding is that we worked within the framework that was given to us by the AFL and by WADA and I'm shocked to be sitting here, really.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: But Steve Dank says he didn't work alone. And that coach James Hird was at the epicentre of the program along with high performance manager Dean Robinson.

STEVE DANK: Certainly there was a collective involvement. You know, it wasn't just Stephen Dank, even though he managed the program. I mean, there was certainly an input from people outside of myself within structuring that program. You know, there was a very significant involvement from Dean as the high performance manager. But in saying that, you know, there was always detailed discussion with the head coach, James Hird. There was certainly detailed discussion with the club doctor. So, you know, there was a variable amount of input from various people within this program.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So who else then specifically was aware? Let's actually speak about this in factual terms. Dean Robinson?

STEVE DANK: Dean Robinson, James Hird, the club doctor, Bruce Reid. They were sort of the main people involved in sort of the knowledge, if you like, of this program.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Steve Dank's background in elite football didn't begin at Essendon or with the AFL. It began in the NRL. Over the past two decades, Dank has consulted to five NRL teams, including a premiership stint with Manly from 2004 to 2010.

In 2008, questions were raised about Dank's practices at Manly alongside coach Des Hasler and whether their boundary-pushing techniques were fully within the rules.

Much has been rumoured with about your time with Manly, injections of calves' blood, rumours that peptides were used, one rumour that supplements were administered intravenously, that your science there and your regime was highly secretive. What exactly did you do there?

STEVE DANK: Well, I don't think so much it was highly secretive except from the point of view obviously, you know, Des liked to keep everything sort of protective, because it was sort of like our IP and it was basically what we went ahead and did a little bit differently to others. I mean, we used a lotta supplements, to be honest, which was no different to a lot of other clubs in terms of protein powders and vitamins and amino acids. We'd use a little bit of calves' blood there during the time, but again, that was no different to sorta what else was around and appropriate in the world of sport at the time.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So nothing was - nothing fell over the line or over the edge?

STEVE DANK: No.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Steve Dank left Manly in 2010. The following year, he was invited to join Essendon by the club's sports performance manager Dean Robinson.

What were you asked to do? What was the plan with Essendon?

STEVE DANK: Oh, essentially as a performance scientist. So obviously you put science into the program to support Dean and the rest of the strength and conditioning staff. Part of that did involve a supplement program, obviously, which we tried to make a little bit more specific, if you like, to the requirements of AFL.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: A key question is whether Essendon players were aware of exactly what supplements they were being injected with. Yesterday, the deputy CEO of the AFL, Gillon McLachlan, announced that the Essendon players knew nothing.

GILLON MCLACHLAN, DEP. CHIEF EXEC., AFL (Yesterday): In this case it's possible that players were administered the WADA-prohibited performance-enhancing drugs without their knowledge or consent.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It's an allegation Steve Dank denies. He says before the supplements regime began, all Essendon players were asked to sign consent forms.

STEVE DANK: I guess from our point of view we just thought because we were sort of introducing a fairly broad range-type program, that we just wanted to make sure they were informed about what was about to be undertaken as part of its supplement program.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Alongside consent forms were players fully informed of what they were ...

STEVE DANK: Yes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: ... to be administered?

STEVE DANK: Yes. And, you know, oftentimes, particularly in the early stages, we would actually get them to reaffirm that they knew what they were taking and what they were doing. So there was a lot of discussion with the players on that.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How does that then - your answer sit with the fact that former Essendon players have now spoken publicly regarding the fact that they were completely unaware of what they were being given?

STEVE DANK: Certainly very, very surprised. Certainly very, very surprised given the amount of discussion that we'd had with the players.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So, which version of the story is correct?

STEVE DANK: Well obviously I say my version is correct. We certainly spent a lot of time, and even as the season progressed, we still kept that dialogue going quite strongly.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Did you inject any Essendon players with a prohibited substance?

STEVE DANK: No.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What did you inject Essendon players with?

STEVE DANK: Oh, look, they had intravenous injections for vitamin B and vitamin C, which are quite compliant with the WADA code.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What else were Essendon players injected with?

STEVE DANK: Nothing else, intravenously, no.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How then were peptides applied? Because the suggestion is that peptides were applied intravenously.

STEVE DANK: No, there was no intravenous application of peptides whatsoever.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So how then were they applied?

STEVE DANK: Look, as I said, I'm not gonna go through the specifics of the whole program.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Without naming them, how many were used?

STEVE DANK: Um, well, look, to be honest, the peptides themselves is a fairly broad term. Even within the protein powders themselves, there could've been anywhere from maybe three to four different peptides that were part of the ingredients. I mean, by definition a peptide is anything that strings more than two amino acids together, so, certainly a lot of these formulations would've had various amount of peptides within their formulation. But again, all very, very legal and certainly all within the constraints of WADA.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Based on the Australian Crime Commission's report released last week, Steve Dank is implicated in a possible breach of the WADA rules by administering supplements illegally.

What is your response to that? Did you?

STEVE DANK: No.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Explain to me how you didn't.

STEVE DANK: Well, look, we had a program. It was well-documented. That program was discussed at all levels throughout the club in terms of what those supplements were and, you know, the regime in terms of dosages and what time of the day or week.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Dank says every supplement used on Essendon players was logged in a detailed electronic register kept on the club's intranet. And Essendon players weren't the only club members on a supplements regime. Coaches and staff were also on supplement regimes to enhance their performance.

STEVE DANK: Um, look, there were some differences obviously in what we offered the coaches. I mean, let's face it, the coaches themselves are not subjected to any WADA code.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How many coaches at Essendon or staff outside of the playing assembly were taking supplements?

STEVE DANK: Oh, look, should try and give you a quick number off the top of my head. It may have been three, four, maybe five that were taking vitamin supplements, protein supplements. And as I said, ...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And were they taking supplements that are outside of the regulations - and again, they are entitled to do so because they aren't playing, they're not players.

STEVE DANK: Um, look, to be perfectly honest, there were a couple of coaches that were using some of supplements, if you like, that were a little bit outside the WADA code. But again, they were entitled to it and certainly nothing illegal there.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: At the end of September 2012, three days after Essendon's final game of the season, Steve Dank was told by club management that his contract would not be renewed for 2013. Behind the scenes, something far more serious was going on. In September, Steve Dank was interviewed at length by the ACC.

STEVE DANK: They obviously were quite happy with what I had discussed with them and I figured that that must've been consistent with whatever information that they'd had. And they'd indicated to me that they were happy with that information.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How did the ACC indicate that to you? What were the words they used?

STEVE DANK: Oh, they said they didn't think that I'd done anything wrong.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: To confirm, the ACC told you personally that they did not believe you had done anything wrong?

STEVE DANK: Correct.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Last week, 7.30's investigations revealed the extent of Dank's other commercial enterprises, including two medical rejuvenation clinics registered in Victoria and New South Wales. Dank says his clinics are legitimate and completely separate to his work consulting to elite football teams.

Who are your patients? Are they athletes?

STEVE DANK: No. So, for example, we only deal in an anti-ageing space or a rejuvenated space. Certainly no athletes frequent the clinic. And, you know, we certainly concentrate most of our work on sorta that executive, say, for example, who's in a little bit of the later years of life, that patient who may be a little bit obese, that patient who may be going through a degree of fatigue or lethargy because of a very strenuous work period at the moment. So there's a cascade of different reasons why a patient may come to the clinic.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: 7.30 has taken a very thorough look at Medical Rejuvenation Clinic's presence online ...

STEVE DANK: Yep.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: ... and the website where a wide variety of substances and supplements are being sold. What are these supplements?

STEVE DANK: Well they're peptides, they're legal peptides. So basically most of the peptides are orientated towards sorta enhancing growth hormone release. There's another peptide which is orientated towards improving the efficacy of testosterone, so it's not actually supplementing testosterone with the use of testosterone, but improves testosterone efficiency.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: You've just mentioned that they're all legal. I want to be very clear with this. Are any of the supplements or substances that you sell through Medical Rejuvenation Clinic, are any prohibited?

STEVE DANK: No.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Illegal, banned?

STEVE DANK: No.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: But there's one product on Dank's website that stands out. Last week, 7.30 discovered that Dank's Medical Rejuvenation Clinics were selling a compound known as GHRP-6, or peptide 6. It's a supplement with similar properties to human growth hormone and it's banned by the Australian Anti-Doping Authority and drug testing won't pick it up in urine samples. Regulators here have no way of detecting it.

This is the very supplement rumoured to be at the heart of the Essendon scandal.

STEVE DANK: Yes, yes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It's a very curious link.

STEVE DANK: Well it's probably only a curious link because I happen to be working at Essendon and of course my other business interests happen to be selling it. But, to be honest, that's no different to a situation where a club doctor in his medical bag will carry certain things which of course would be prohibited in a sporting setting, but they can obviously use it in a therapeutic setting. So of course it's a fairly easy association to be made, but, you know, under no circumstances was GHRP-6 ever used at Essendon.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So the Medical Rejuvenation Clinic is a distinct entity that has no crossover with any of your consultancy work with football teams or Essendon?

STEVE DANK: No, no.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It's not just the substances Dank sells that have caught the attention of authorities. In the wake of the Australian Crime Commission's report last week linking organised crime to elite sporting codes in Australia, 7.30 discovered that some of Dank's business associates had their own alleged links to organised criminal elements.

It seems like two worlds colliding to an outsider. I'll put it to you like this: Steve Dank on the one hand, a highly experienced sports scientist, highly qualified with a PhD on the way, and two co-directors with outlaw motorcycle gangs and underworld figures. It's a very unlikely pairing.

STEVE DANK: Well again, as I said, I don't think there's any substantiate any links to bikie gangs, so that's - I don't think - so from my point of view, I certainly know that isn't the case.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Have they assured you that there is no links?

STEVE DANK: Um, well not really because there's nothing needing to be assured. I just know that there is no link.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In a press conference yesterday, the deputy CEO of the AFL, Gillon McLachlan, made this announcement.

GILLON MCLACHLAN (Yesterday): I think one thing, the AFL is not aware of any issues of potential use of performance-enhancing drugs by any players on AFL lists coming into the 2013 season.

STEVE DANK: I would suggest maybe - oh, easily between 35 to maybe 40 of the current list were there last year.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And were under your supplements regime?

STEVE DANK: Correct.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So then, how does that sit with the claim the AFL made yesterday that the cases were all historical and none of the current players for the 2013 season? Is that possible?

STEVE DANK: Um, well of course that is a little bit, you know, I guess in some ways a little bit confusing. It certainly clears - it appears to clear all of last year's playing list, which I think's quite good. I've got no comment on what this historical perspective is because I guess in that statement there was no indication about how historical that was.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So then of the 35 to 40 players under your supplements regime at Essendon, you would agree that many or most of those are playing in the 2013 season?

STEVE DANK: Oh, correct, yes. So obviously there's no issue with those two players from the 2012 list.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Today, Essendon declined to respond on camera, telling 7.30 there was an investigation already underway by the AFL and regulator ASADA.

STEVE DANK: Oh, I think any elite system sorta pushes towards the boundary. And I think it'd be sort of fairly silly to think that Essendon was the only club pushing the line. I mean, I don't think - it'd be sort of foolish to think that Essendon were the only club that were looking at these sort of programs.

LEIGH SALES: Just on Essendon, late today the club's chief executive Ian Robson stood down from an AFL working group on illicit drugs.