AFL PLAYERS have agreed to a revolutionary drug-testing regime as part of the AFL's push to toughen its battle against illicit drug use.

Footballers will allow drug-testers to take hair samples in a bid to gauge drug use during their 2008 end-of-season break.

The hair-testing procedure, which will be trialled in October and November following talks between the AFL, the Federal Government and the AFL Players Association.

The new regime has been pushed by the AFL in a bid to learn the depth of the illicit drug problem during the players' holidays. Hair will be tested because the AFL's medical advice is that it retains evidence of cocaine and other dangerous drug use for two months.

First mooted by AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick in The Age in February, the procedure was initially rejected by the players because it was considered unreliable and has not been adopted by any other Australian football code or the Beijing Olympic drug testers.

But AFLPA boss Brendan Gale has had a change of heart following an assurance from the AFL that the trial will not result in the players receiving a strike against their name under the league's three-strikes policy in the first year of trial testing.

The move to test players after their holidays follows West Coast player Chad Fletcher's dramatic and still unexplained hospitalisation in Las Vegas 19 months ago.

Fletcher, who has refused to provide West Coast with the medical report from his near-death experience, was not drug-tested on his return from Las Vegas and was under no obligation to be tested.

Hair testing is considered less invasive because players will not be interrupted during their holidays, but will remain accountable, with random tests on their return.

The customary urine and blood-testing for illegal drugs will resume at the start of preseason training.

Should the hair testing reveal high numbers of positive results, the AFL will push to continue holiday testing.

The league is expected to unveil its toughened drug-testing regime early next month, along with the results of its dramatically increased 2007 test results.

The Age believes that more players tested positive last year to illicit drugs than ever before as a result of the increased number of tests, which almost tripled last season and were carried out in more high-risk periods, such as Monday morning training.

While the number of positive tests increased, the percentage of players testing positive was down on the previous year. No footballer is believed to have three strikes against his name and therefore the AFL will fight to keep the identity of the positive tests secret.

Chief executive Andrew Demetriou held talks earlier this year with Gale to negotiate the policy change, which last season put the league at odds with the then Howard government over the policy's three-strikes stand.

Despite reports that the AFL was to change to a two-strikes policy, the players have not been asked to consider this. The AFL has continued to stand by the three strikes, although it has asked the players union to look at a less stringent secrecy code in which club officials could be informed if a player tests positive twice.

The three-strikes issue remains sensitive between the AFL and the Federal Government, given the game's growing reliance on public funding for facilities and the Government's push for national sports to adopt uniform drug policies.