The NRL confirmed on Saturday 12 past and present Sharks have been suspended for breaches of the game's anti-doping rules. Their bans will expire on November 22 after they were backdated 12 months.

On a day when the NRL confirmed it would not allow sports scientist Stephen Dank to have any further involvement in rugby league, it was hailed as closure for those who accepted what was effectively a three-game ban.

However, ASADA could use the evidence in the admissions to move against Flanagan and the Cronulla coaching staff, casting further uncertainty over the club's future.

While NRL chief operating officer Jim Doyle said Flanagan was "on track" to satisfy the governing body's requirements to qualify for a three-month discount on his year-long suspension, ASADA might deem further time on the sidelines is required.

"ASADA will consider, and remember the evidence has come through last night so this is very raw ... the evidence as it stands from an anti-doping perspective and consider all elements," Smith said.

"If that results in anybody with a duty of care having further charges laid against them from an anti-doping perspective, then that will take place. That process is under way and will happen in the background based on the evidence we find ourselves with today."

Former World Anti-Doping Agency chief John Fahey has condemned ASADA's deal with the players and urged WADA not to agree to the sanctions. However, Smith indicated the penalties are unlikely to be overturned by the global body.

"My understanding is ASADA and WADA have worked in close collaboration to get to this point," Smith said. "Clearly, WADA won't have received all the details of all of the files – we only received those details last night as part of players being put on the register of findings.

"My understanding, in close co-operation with [ASADA boss] Ben McDevitt and the WADA team, they are understanding and supportive, in principle, of where we find ourselves today."

In a statement issued by ASADA, McDevitt said: "Having a proven doping violation against these individuals is something that they will now carry with them for the rest of their lives.

"Our aim has always been to find out what happened at Cronulla in 2011. After a thorough investigation and a review of the evidence by former Federal Court Judge, the Hon.  Garry Downes, we have reached a code-compliant outcome.

"Throughout this process I have been in constant personal contact with the World Anti-Doping Agency's director-general, David Howman and the architect of the World Anti-Doping Code. I am confident that our handling of the process is fully compliant with the code."

The Rugby League Players' Association was critical of a process that resulted in the players being given just 36 hours to make a call on whether to accept the offer.

"This was a decision as to their fate, their careers and their futures," RLPA boss David Garnsey said.

"This was not only unreasonable but effectively left many of them with no real choice at all ... We continue to maintain that it was unfair for the players in question to have been served with show-cause notices despite the fact the NRL had already determined their club had failed to observe its duty of care towards them."

There has been an outcry from Australian Olympians over the leniency shown to the NRL players.

When it was put to Smith that a player could receive a longer suspension for an on-field misdemeanour such as a chicken-wing tackle, he said: "They haven't got a three-week suspension, they've got a 12-month suspension. They have pleaded guilty to the use of taking banned substances.  We're talking about 2011 and it's been 18 months of torture for the players, the families, the fans and everyone involved in this."