KingBurton
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It was just after the corresponding game last year that Penrith found themselves embroiled in the most unusual drug scandal.
To this day the club maintains it had no knowledge of Brent Naden taking cocaine the night before last year’s grand final. It’s why they are taking legal action against News Corp’s The Daily Telegraph for claiming otherwise.
According to the club, the first person to find out about it was assistant coach Cameron Ciraldo. When ASADA approached Naden to be drug-tested after full-time, he immediately knew his fate and confided in Ciraldo.
Ciraldo then informed coach Ivan Cleary as the team drowned its sorrows into the early hours of the morning at the club’s Penrith academy. A few weeks later the test results came back positive.
The only person who may have suspected something wasn’t right may have been Naden’s roommate Billy Burns, who is now at St George Illawarra.
On the Tuesday after the grand final, Naden confessed to Panthers officials that he had been drinking and taking drugs the night before the game with a family member, which was also a breach of the COVID protocols at the time.
Any suggestion he took part in the illegal activity because he thought he wasn’t playing is off the mark. He was told at the captain’s run that day that he would be on the bench for the decider.
His manager Allan Gainey, who called on grand final day to find out if his client was playing following reports he had been dropped, was also told by former assistant Trent Barrett that Naden was in the 17.
The club has been impressed with Naden’s behaviour since the ordeal, which saw him spend time in a northern beaches rehabilitation facility over the summer. He was left with no doubt that if he strayed again his contract would be torn up.
Even since announcing mid-season that he would be heading to the Bulldogs next year, the club says he has maintained an impeccable work ethic. He will be a handy pick-up for Canterbury in 2022.
To this day the club maintains it had no knowledge of Brent Naden taking cocaine the night before last year’s grand final. It’s why they are taking legal action against News Corp’s The Daily Telegraph for claiming otherwise.
According to the club, the first person to find out about it was assistant coach Cameron Ciraldo. When ASADA approached Naden to be drug-tested after full-time, he immediately knew his fate and confided in Ciraldo.
Ciraldo then informed coach Ivan Cleary as the team drowned its sorrows into the early hours of the morning at the club’s Penrith academy. A few weeks later the test results came back positive.
The only person who may have suspected something wasn’t right may have been Naden’s roommate Billy Burns, who is now at St George Illawarra.
On the Tuesday after the grand final, Naden confessed to Panthers officials that he had been drinking and taking drugs the night before the game with a family member, which was also a breach of the COVID protocols at the time.
Any suggestion he took part in the illegal activity because he thought he wasn’t playing is off the mark. He was told at the captain’s run that day that he would be on the bench for the decider.
His manager Allan Gainey, who called on grand final day to find out if his client was playing following reports he had been dropped, was also told by former assistant Trent Barrett that Naden was in the 17.
The club has been impressed with Naden’s behaviour since the ordeal, which saw him spend time in a northern beaches rehabilitation facility over the summer. He was left with no doubt that if he strayed again his contract would be torn up.
Even since announcing mid-season that he would be heading to the Bulldogs next year, the club says he has maintained an impeccable work ethic. He will be a handy pick-up for Canterbury in 2022.
