From www.localfooty.com.au
Reported by Paul Amy
Full Story click here
FRANKSTON Dolphins player Matthew Clark has become the first player to be suspended under the VFL's drug code.
Clark received a nine-month suspension for taking an energy supplement called "Hemo Rage".
The 21-year-old came up positive to a test conducted by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority last year and learned of his ban through his sports lawyer yesterday.
An AFL Victoria tribunal decided the penalty.
"I’m glad to get it behind me," a guarded Clark told Leader this morning.
"I guess I have to accept it (the suspension). I don’t have any other option."
Clark received the supplement from a former teammate, who bought it at a health food shop in the northern suburbs.
He said he was unaware he was doing anything wrong.
The former Dandenong Stingrays player said he used the supplement about six times.
"He (the ex-teammate) said it was all good for VFL," Clark said in February.
"After few months after I was tested I got a phone call (from ASADA) saying the sample came back positive. I was shocked pretty much."
Another VFL player, Casey Scorpion Wade Lees, is also facing a suspension, over a fat-burning product he bought online from the US in 2010.
Australian Customs picked up the package and informed ASADA.
