Outgoing National Rugby League COO Jim Doyle said that his organization is "pushing the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority to wrap up its investigation" into Cronulla's '11 supplements scandal "every single day," after acknowledging the "furore was having a snowball effect on the embattled club," according to Adam Pengilly of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Only moments after "admitting sacked star Todd Carney was 'highly unlikely' to return to the NRL after a lewd photo was posted on social media," Doyle again "refuted suggestions the Sharks' future was in jeopardy." Cronulla is still waiting for ASADA to "wrap up its investigation," despite Australian Football League players at Essendon being issued with show-cause notices last month. Doyle said of a possible connection between the investigation and Cronulla's off-field incidents this year, "Without a doubt, [but] the players need to focus on what they've got in front of them every single week" (SMH, 7/1). In London, Nick Tedeschi wrote on the Guardian's Talking Sport blog the Cronulla Sharks "really are a team in deep trouble, one so close to death that the hyenas are surely circling." No "betting man in their right mind would take even money about the Sharks being located in the Shire in three years time, let alone 10, and it is hard to see how a team that has imploded so ferociously while being under such heavy fire externally can survive." The club -- "long regarded as the poorest in the NRL -- has no money." It is without a "major sponsor -- and have been all year -- and have at least twice faced financial extinction in the last decade." Cronulla is in "one hell of a hole right now and it is one they may never climb out of" (GUARDIAN, 6/30).
