West Coast chief executive Trevor Nisbett has urged AFL clubs to show caution in their determination to push for a tougher stance on illicit drugs.

Warning against the pitfalls of zero tolerance policies and wielding "the big stick" over players testing positive to illegal drugs, the long-serving Eagles boss said that prioritising the players' welfare and education was "the only way to tackle this". Nisbett also said the game ran the risk of seeing the players abandoning the voluntary illicit drugs policy.

West Coast are understood to have emerged as a lone voice pushing the welfare line at last week's meeting of the 18 clubs. The Eagles were also singled out at the AFL talks by the AFL Players Association for turning around their culture and held up as a success story of the current illicit drugs policy.

"We learned the hard way," Nisbett told Fairfax Media. "We had to go to the bottom to do it. I think the welfare model is the only way to do it. We have people coming to clubs from all walks of life and the welfare and education system are the only way to tackle this.

"If it's a punitive model, then the first time someone experiments we'll be rubbing them out, won't we? I agree we should look at removing self-reporting and some of those areas, but if you're looking at a one- or two-strikes policy on something that is a voluntary policy ... I'm not sure how you get that through.

"The players have to agree to it. The view you just kick everyone out of the game who experiments - you can't because the players will say: 'We won't be tested'."

With the AFL set to oversee a review of the illicit drugs policy amid calls for less strikes and year-round hair-testing, Nisbett's club was the focus of both an AFL inquiry and a WA Royal Commission over 2007 and 2008 after a series of drug scandals  threatened the club with the loss of premiership points or draft picks.

At the time, Nisbett and his board took responsibility and vowed to lead the resurrection of the club. West Coast are understood to have recorded a clean or near-clean sheet at the most recent round of in-season and out-of-season testing.

While former club captain Ben Cousins and his ongoing and public battle with addiction, along with several other former players with drug problems have continued to serve as a reminder of that era, the club is now seen as a pioneer of in-house integrity programs with a strong priority on player welfare. West Coast were the first club to appoint a full-time integrity officer, Peter Staples.

"Unfortunately we've seen the big sticks before and it's just not the way to fix it," said Nisbett. "It's certainly been a priority for us. We've seen the worst of it.

"These days it's not just about the big stick but if those players continue to experiment they'll be found out and they're silly because it's a volunteer system. If they want to make it stricter or harder, then that's a good thing but in my opinion we have to still counsel and educate."

AFLPA chief Paul Marsh said the competition should "work with West Coast to look at what they have managed to achieve within the current policy. What they've done to work through these issues they've had ... they've turned things around significantly."

Referring to the revelation the game was looking at drug-testing teenaged players and potentially banning players testing positive from entering that year's draft, Marsh said: "We'd hope this is not a proposal to wipe our hands of players who've had problems or made a mistake in their past.

"I'd hate to think we'd turn our back on those boys when the industry has done such a great job of turning boys from all walks of life into successful and outstanding young men."

Marsh said he had not been aware of the AFL's proposal to patrol the football pathways into the league. Another proposal by football boss Mark Evans was to ratify the anti-drugs stance by making the notion of drug-free footballers a condition of employment under the AFL rules.