Frustrated ... Wayne Bennett asks what his club's supposed to confess to. Source: News Limited
Australian Rugby League boss Dave Smith revealed the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) will on Tuesday meet with the six NRL clubs being investigated as Newcastle coach Wayne Bennett declared the game "has never been cleaner".
Bennett's Newcastle Knights on Tuesday morning confirmed they were one of the six clubs approached by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC), but the most decorated coach in the NRL was clearly frustrated by the lack of information made available.
"We're still very much in the dark, we've just been told we're one of the clubs and we know no more than that," Bennett said.
"This can't keep going on. It's a week old now and we've still got not one bit of information about what we've got to confess to. It's just weird.
"Under the Hunter Sports (Group) regime there's nothing to hide here. They want us to confess to something but I've been wracking my head what we've got to confess to.
"I've been through all my staff, I've checked with all the players - whatever they're looking for it hasn't happened in the last 18 months. After that I've got no idea."
And it may well be a pre-Bennett regime that has piqued the interest of the ACC.
Bennett confirmed that when the Knights' training base was raided last week, investigators were looking for records that dated back as far as 2005.
And an era even earlier than that was when Bennett believes sports science practices in rugby league were at their most questionable.
"I've never seen the game cleaner," Bennett said.
"I'm not saying we're perfect, that would be ridiculous of me but as a long-term coach and all the periods of time we've gone through, if this had been happening in the early 2000s I'd be a lot more worried than I am today.
"We're a lot better educated, we drive a lot better agendas with all this and our athletes are much better informed."
Manly, Penrith, North Queensland, Cronulla and Canberra are the other five clubs to have been targeted by the ACC investigation and will each be involved in Tuesday's briefing with ASADA.
In a press conference at NRL HQ on Tuesday morning, Smith refused to elaborate further on the investigation and would not say what the clubs might find out from ASADA.
Smith confirmed he had been given a "confidential briefing" from the ACC but would not say if he'd been given a breakdown on the allegations on a case-by-case basis.
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