The AFL Players' Association won't rule out future player power action against media outlets after forcing the Seven Network to back down over its recent drug report.

The AFLPA has accepted Seven's expression of regret for its controversial August 24 report, which broadcast details of two players' medical records, as an apology.

It also welcomed the network's assurance it would abandon a legal challenge against a Victorian Supreme Court injunction which prevents media outlets publishing details about the players and club in question.

An AFLPA executive meeting on Tuesday night resolved that players resume cooperating with Seven and end their boycott of one of the game's broadcasting partners.

Association chief executive Brendon Gale said the players regarded Seven's backdown as "an admission of an error of judgment", and was hopeful the fall-out was a blip on the radar between the players and the broadcaster.

But Gale was unsure whether the relationship between players and news outlets had been damaged irreparably, and said an increasingly ravenous media made it open season on footballers and their private lives.

He could not rule out players boycotting media outlets in the future over issues they felt aggrieved over now the precedent has been set.

"I'm not sure at this stage," he said.

"This has been a very serious one and perhaps unsurprisingly we've responded in this manner."

Gale said he had learned about media ethics and the debate over what should be reported in the public interest since Seven broadcast its report, in a period of great scrutiny of players' behaviour on and off the field.

"We're seeing an increasingly ravenous media appetite for copy and for content, so it would be naive of me to think that this is going to stop that," he said.

"It's not, but I think in the future media might just walk away from this a little better informed as to where that line is."

The AFLPA will direct its members to cooperate with Seven - part of the consortium which spent $780 million for the rights to televise the game from 2007-11 - and Gale said he hoped there would be no animosity shown towards the reporter who broke the story, Dylan Howard.

Howard was interviewed by police on Wednesday in relation to how the medical records were obtained.

His lawyer, Andrew McKenna, said Howard acted with honesty and integrity through the matter and would fight any charges laid against him.

Police have already charged a couple with theft.

Despite the questions the saga provoked about the AFL's illicit drugs code, Gale said the controversy highlighted the policy at work, albeit in a perverse way.

"What it demonstrates is an intervention where players who have made serious errors of judgment have been directed to a course of treatment, education, rehabilitation," he said.

"But for this policy nothing would be done at all.

"So it demonstrates a policy at work, but on this occasion, for this very invasive breach which we obviously found unacceptable."

However, Gale admitted he understood the concerns of club administrations which did not know whether their players had tested positive to drugs under the confidentiality rule, and could not rule out possible changes to the code for next season.

"Clearly there are drugs in AFL football. I think that's a bad thing," he said.

"We'd like to have an illicit drugs policy that discourages drug use, that provides a really effective response for those who do make errors of judgment ... but it's too early to bring it up at this stage."

Collingwood vice-captain James Clement doubted players would harbour resentment towards Seven.

"It was just a one-off situation that's been put to bed," he said.

"Obviously they are one of the major media organisations that cover AFL football so I can't see there being any further problems."

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