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I'm A Celebrity's Beau Ryan speaks out on 'doping scandal': 'Darkest day'

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! contestant and retired NRL player, Beau Ryan has opened up about the doping allegations that engulfed his former club, the Cronulla Sharks in scandal in 2013.

The 36-year-old said it was "one of the darkest days in sport" when ASADA (Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority) began investigating the legality of the club's supplements program during the 2011 NRL season.

I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! 2022 contestant Beau Ryan. Photo: Channel 10.
I’m A Celebrity contestant Beau Ryan has opened up about the doping scandal at his former NRL club, the Cronulla Sharks. Photo: Channel 10.

'Darkest day'

Beau, who now hosts The Amazing Race, made the comments to fellow campmate and ex-AFL star Nathan Buckley in Tuesday night's episode.

"Nath asked me today about the doping scandal at Cronulla and I was there when the ASADA scandal came out but I wasn’t there in 2011 when all the allegations were made of doping," Beau said in a piece-to-camera.

"It ripped the league apart."

Beau told Nathan that he and his teammates were "called in at training one day" to face the integrity unit and the NRL commission.

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 10:  Beau Ryan of the Sharks runs the ball during the round one NRL match between the Cronulla Sharks and the Gold Coast Titans at Sharks Stadium on March 10, 2013 in Sydney, Australia.  (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Beau joined the Cronulla Sharks in 2013. Photo: Getty Images.

"And they said, 'You’ve seen the news? This is going to be one of the darkest days in sport. Something happened at this club in regards to doping and stuff. Be honest and tell us what’s happened because they’ve got ya’.

"We were in a room for like 12 hours. That was the first day of the investigation."

Beau added that during ASADA's investigation, which began in February 2013, players were regularly pulled out of training to be interviewed.

"So we’d be training and they’d go, ‘All right, four players, boom’, straight into an interrogation with ASADA," he said.

"They were saying, ‘You come forward and say yeah you’ve doped, we’ll give you a six-month suspension that you serve in the pre-season'," he added.

Beau explained that at that time the Sharks was made up of 40 percent new players, including himself, many of whom weren't aware of the situation.

"I remember there was a few of us going, ‘What is it?’ And they were like, ‘They know’. 'Who’s they?' They tried to smoke out everyone out and then the team just fell apart," he said.

In December 2013, as a result of the investigation, the Sharks' head coach Shane Flanagan received a 12-month ban and the club was fined $1,000,000.

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