THE RESULTS of player hair tests will be protected more rigorously under new provisions signed off by the AFL Players Association on Wednesday night. 

The new provisions come more than six weeks after reports emerged identifying the number of Collingwood players who had allegedly recorded positive tests in the off-season.

Under the new Illicit Drugs Policy that was introduced in October, players agreed to be hair tested and for results to be made available only to the AFL and key club officials. 

According to a report in The Age, all parties will now have to sign confidentiality agreements when they receive the results, and the information cannot be passed on to coaches or board members.   

AFL football operations manager Mark Evans will discuss the new provisions will club CEOs on Thursday.  

According to The Age, club chiefs will be able to share the hair testing information with football managers and player welfare managers.   

Clubs will still only have access to the number of positive hair tests, not the names of players.

In the fallout from the Collingwood report in March, the players discussed the prospect of keeping hair-testing results out of the hands of clubs if confidentiality could not be guaranteed.  

Under the original agreement, results from hair testing would only be used for research purposes to help shape counselling and education programs.