Port Adelaide's plan to conduct hair tests on the majority of its list three times this year has been rejected by the AFL Players Association, despite the endorsement of Port's leadership group, which says the code's approach to illicit drug use is too lenient.

Fairfax Media has learnt that the Power, with the express encouragement of its most influential players, spent about $20,000 to double the number of illicit drug tests in the pre-season.

Like Hawthorn, the only other club known to have made a similar request to vastly increase its hair testing, Port gained permission to roughly double the number of samples taken from players when they returned from their long annual break.

The agreed competition standard for pre-season hair-testing, which informs clubs how many players — but not which players — have used illicit drugs over a three-to-four-month period is 20 players per club.

In 2015 that figure does not cover half of an AFL list.

Power bosses Keith Thomas and David Koch were disappointed, and mystified, when the AFLPA refused Port's request for permission, earlier this year, to conduct two further rounds of hair testing before the end of the season.

The club sees the roadblock as nonsensical given the leadership group, led by captain Travis Boak, had already told Port bosses it not only supported more testing, but was eager to lift the bar generally on how illicit drug use was monitored.

Boak and fellow leadership group members Brad Ebert, Matthew Lobbe, Tom Jonas, Jackson Trengove, Hamish Hartlett, and Ollie Wines also told Port chiefs that the move to conduct hair tests three times a year had the support of the broader list.

"We have a playing group that agrees with us that there should be continual testing throughout the year. And we have agreement from our playing group, they're quite happy to be hair-tested three times a year," Port president David Koch said.

"This was rejected by the AFL Players Association, who said we couldn't do it.

"We think the system is far too lenient, our players think it's lenient, and we've tried to raise the bar — formally tried to raise the bar — and have been knocked back.

"We find that a bit annoying because here's a playing group and a club that wants to go further than required. Surely a club that wants to set higher standards should be able to."

AFL players' agreement to hair testing goes beyond World Anti-Doping Agency requirements so while clubs are seeing it as increasingly valuable, it effectively remains a voluntary program.

Players only agreed to hair testing on strict confidentiality conditions including that results be shared only between the AFL's medical chiefs, club doctors and club CEOs.

The clubs see the information as an invaluable snapshot of the habits of their list in relation to illicit drugs and Port Adelaide's view is that triannual hair testing would be beneficial.

The hair tests are in addition to the samples taken from players throughout the season under the AFL's Illicit Drugs Code, which is on the table for remodelling.

Like Hawthorn, Port informed its players before their annual break that hair tests would be greatly increased when they returned. Tragically, Port is all too understanding of the frailty of young life following the death of John McCarthy – in a tragic accident in which the 22-year-old league footballer died after a failed jump between levels from a hotel balcony on an end-of-season trip in Las Vegas in 2012.

Hawthorn champion and former skipper Sam Mitchell has made his support for quarterly hair testing known to the AFLPA but Hawthorn chief executive Stuart Fox told Fairfax this week that while he supports Mitchell's proposal the club has no plans to increase the frequency of hair testing this season.

Reticent to propose a fixed list of revised measures to deal with players who return a first, second or third positive test to illicit drugs, Koch said it should be an "industry decision". Broadly, he believes that players' identities should remain protected after a first strike but that the financial sanction and level of education and support should be higher.

Koch said a second strike should lead to a public outing, higher fines, a "solid" suspension and more education and counselling.  A third strike, he said, should trigger an indefinite suspension, heavy fines, professional assistance and ongoing target testing.