Former Olympic coach Nic Bideau says drug effects would linger if Essendon took them A former Olympic coach says the effects of performance-enhancing drugs would still be helping Essendon, if its players took them last year. ESSENDON would still be enjoying the benefits of performance-enhancing drugs if players did take illegal supplements last season, according to a leading athletics expert. Nic Bideau, who managed Olympian Cathy Freeman and coached Craig Mottram, says he has no doubt there would be residual benefits. The Bombers - unbeaten this season - have not conceded players took non-World Anti-Doping Agency approved peptides, including the anti-obesity drug AOD-9604. The AFL-Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation into the Bombers aims to uncover evidence of a regimen of banned drugs at the club under controversial sports scientist Stephen Dank. Bideau told the Herald Sun any use of illegal drugs would improve muscle strength, which could stay with players. "If you have a really good training year, it helps you forever or until you start to decline," Bideau said. It is building a base layer upon layer upon layer. It's like pages in a phone book. It is foundation you are trying to build. It takes people two or three years to become a fit league footballer, and if you add another layer on, it has to help. Essendon believes its program of rapid weight gain last year backfired badly and that its impressive start to this season is fuelled by a simple endurance-based program. The medical and sports science industries are divided on any long-lasting benefits to Essendon. Former St Kilda doctor Rohan White yesterday said many peptides and supplements were fast-acting and quickly flushed from the system. The AFL Medical Officers Association associate would not comment on Essendon's players, but said many supplements had only short-term benefits. If any club or player used supplements last year it would be a pretty long bow to draw to say they were still helping. Many supplements would be excreted from the system quite quickly and the benefits would be very short-term," White said. But one AFL sports science expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said any illegal substance used at any time had to have future benefits. If anyone is taking performance-enhancing drugs, the benefits of that are cumulative. You have been able to train at a higher level and the drug might be out of your system, but the training effect is still there," he said. It increases muscle bulk and muscle strength and muscle endurance, and you push on from there. It would be naive to think it wouldn't have a performance benefit a year on.