THE secret AFL trial of Stephen Dank has been blown open by the leaking of details of the confidential hearings.

After months of AFL tribunal deliberations over Dank’s role in the Essendon supplements program, the Herald Sun has obtained the transcript of last Tuesday’s penalty hearing.

READ THE TRANSCRIPT HERE

The 43-page document reveals:

TRIBUNAL chairman David Jones, who cleared the players of doping, suggested the club “swallowed” Dank’s credentials to gain a “competitive advantage”.

THE AFL accused the former Essendon sports scientist of having a “complete disregard for the health and wellbeing of others”.

A SMS exchange between Dank and a compound pharmacist discussing the use of racehorse drugs on players is a key driver in the AFL’s desire for him to be expelled from Australian sport.

AFL HUNTS DANK OVER RACEHORSE DRUG TEXTS

Mr Jones’s tribunal ruled in March that it was not “comfortably satisfied” Essendon players had used the banned Thymosin-beta 4 in 2012.

But in one exchange on Tuesday, Mr Jones asserted: “If he (Dank) can make Essendon more successful, more competitive then that reflects on him positively ... and Essendon swallow it because they want to get that competitive advantage.”

AFL counsel Renee Enbom responded: “That’s right.’’

ASADA lawyer Malcolm Holmes told Tuesday’s hearing: “In terms of multiple offences and multiple serious offences, and over an extended period of time, a lifetime sanction, with respect, is entirely appropriate just on general anti-doping principles.”

Enbom added: “In my submission lifetime ineligibility is the appropriate sanction for all the reasons identified by Mr Holmes.

“One matter that stands out for me is Mr Dank’s complete disregard for the health and wellbeing of others.

“It seems from the evidence that he very much put his own success … above the health of individuals.”

Dank, the mastermind of Essendon’s 2012 supplements program, was found guilty of 10 violations of the AFL anti-doping code in April, including trafficking, attempting to traffic and “complicity in matters related to a range of prohibited substances”.

The breaches took place when Dank worked at Essendon in 2012 and at the Gold Coast Suns in 2010.

He was also found guilty of supplying a banned substance to a Carlton support person in 2012.

The drugs linked to Dank by the AFL tribunal include Hexarelin, Humanofort, Thymosin beta-4, CJC-1295, GHRP6 and SARMS.

Dank told the Herald Sun on Monday: “Obviously, the information indicates to us severe double standards. We will be taking the appropriate legal action against the AFL and people within the tribunal setting for the inappropriateness of the comments made.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency is appealing the AFL tribunal’s decisions to clear the Essendon 34 and, on several charges, Dank.

michael.warner@news.com.au