The appearance on the internet of the names of three AFL players who had allegedly tested positive to illicit drugs did not constitute their entry into the public domain, a court was told.

The Victorian Supreme Court is hearing a bid by the AFL to prevent the players being identified by The Age newspaper.

In response to claims by opposing counsel that the widespread appearance of the player's names in internet chat rooms entitled newspapers to subsequently reveal them, the AFL's counsel Will Houghton, QC, said the sites on which they appeared dealt only in "rumour, innuendo and gossip".

Under provisions of the AFL's drug code, players identities remain confidential the first two times they are detected with illicit drugs in their system and are only made public after a third offence.

The players in question had twice tested positive.

The court had earlier heard that because the players' identities had been revealed on the internet, they had entered the public domain and confidentiality no longer existed.

The Age should therefore be entitled to publish the names.

Counsel for the newspaper, Simon Marks, SC, told the court the names should also be allowed to be disclosed because a prima facie case of iniquity existed because the players would have committed a criminal offence by taking illicit drugs and that public interest demanded their identities be revealed.

But Mr Houghton said the dissemination of the names had been "quite limited", existing only of their narrow release by a media monitoring organisation, a brief mention of one of them by a caller to a pay TV show and their appearance on the internet.

Mr Houghton said the internet argument relied on by the newspaper could not be sustained.

He said chat rooms such as those which speculated on the identity of the players contained no more than "informal ramblings".

In discussions on the possible identities of the players, participants in the chat rooms had also aired the names of players who had been incorrectly identified as those who had tested positive.

"It is a far cry from dissemination in a serious form of media," Mr Houghton said.

"These chat rooms do not purport to report the facts."

The hearing before Justice Murray Kellam continues on Thursday.

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