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THE NRL has finally taken the necessary hardline approach in suspending Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan for 12 months and if the Sharkies faithful thought yesterday was rough justice, think again.
Worse days lie ahead for the Shire outfit only next time it will be ASADA, not the NRL, handing out the punishments.
They will most likely come in the form of infraction notices to Sharks players, who are still staring down the barrel of two-year bans for using banned supplements CJC-1295 and GHRP-6 for an 11-week window in 2011.
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As much as the pro-Cronulla rhetoric whipped up over the last 10 months has claimed the ASADA investigation is little more than a political stunt and a Labor witch hunt, the facts are the facts.
Shane Flanagan, Trent Elkin and Steve Dank oversaw a program of banned peptides being introduced into the Cronulla club.
Whether they like it or not, an independent report commissioned by Cronulla's previous board found the Sharks players were subjected to a progressive regimen of injections, creams and tablets from March to the end of May.
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Both substances used have been banned under Article 2 of the WADA code since 2004, meaning the Sharks were playing dirty pool and the whole "don't ask, don't tell", "we didn't know, we were duped" defence is null and void.
Flanagan has always maintained he was completely ignorant about the supplement program, but this stance is at loggerheads with the first version of the independent report commissioned by the club.
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According to that report, Flanagan and Elkin both sat Cronulla's playing roster in 2011 down in the middle of Shark Park during the captain's run and outlined a "new, top secret" supplements program, "for the game day 17 only".
Flanagan's repeated denials differ to what Elkin has told ASADA, with the ex-Cronulla trainer understood to have detailed how the suspended Sharks coach was present in the corporate boxes at Shark Park when players were being administered with injections.
Flanagan's supporters - and he has plenty - will argue it is ridiculous the Sharks coach has been handed the same suspension as Essendon AFL club coach James Hird.
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They will reason how at Essendon, Hird oversaw a 12-month program involving thousands of progressive injections whereas at Cronulla, there were only a tick over 100 jabs in an 11-week window.
Rubbish, it doesn't matter. The rules are the rules.
At best, Shane Flanagan was completely naive and knew nothing about what Elkin and Dank were administering to the players. If this was the case, then he's guilty of being completely negligent in terms of his duty of care to the Cronulla Sharks players from 2011.
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But in the worst case scenario, where Flanagan potentially knew what was going on and turned a blind eye, he could be deemed complicit in the biggest doping scandal in rugby league history.
One of the crucial nails in Flanagan's coffin, which was specifically outlined by the NRL yesterday, was the April 6 email ex-Sharks doctor David Givney sent to the suspended coach and ex-football manager Darren Mooney sounding the alarm about Dank - who continues to deny any wrongdoing - and his regimen of supplements.
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Its date was crucial to the NRL's case against the Sharks.
In response to the email, Flanagan promised to "knock it all on the head, no injections, no anything".
But the problem was Dank was allowed to remain at the club until being dismissed on May 29 and players were subjected to another round of injections and instructed "Not to tell the Doc".
Does this sound like a football club with the duty of care of its players as a paramount objective?
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Two players, Isaac Gordon and Josh Cordoba, have since started legal action against the Cronulla Sharks.
Now that NRL CEO Dave Smith and chief operating officer Jim Doyle have finally reached a satisfactory "fork in the road" with the ASADA element of the investigation to punish Cronulla from a corporate governance perspective, all that remains to be resolved is the anti-doping authority investigation.
Smith and Doyle deserve praise for their handling of the Cronulla file, leaving scope for further hardline action by labelling yesterday's decisions "provisional".
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While some interpreted this as a soft option, it was not.
As much as the Cronulla faithful can continue to live in denial, ASADA continues to build a strong case file. Elkin was the first to go on the record, submitting to an interview.
The development prompted Cronulla players Paul Gallen, John Morris and Ben Pomeroy to front Elkin at his home on the same night they learned he was co-operating with anti-doping officials.
All parties have since attempted to water the scenario down to a convivial chat.
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