Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has declared his players had been betrayed after it was alleged up to 11 of them had returned positive tests for illicit drugs in the AFL off-season.

Up to 11 players have tested positive to illicit drugs, according to report. Getty

The claim was made by a News Corp report on Thursday evening, just two nights before a woeful Collingwood crashed to an embarrassing 80-point opening round away loss to Sydney at the SCG.

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Buckley said after the game he had no idea whether the explosive allegation following the hair testing had impacted on the Pies performance, but was clearly angry his club had been singled out.

“I don’t know what the facts are and I don’t know if many people know what the facts are, the AFL do, in regards to the off season testing,” Buckley said in his post-match press conference.

“But one thing I do know is that our players, along with the rest of the players in the competition, were prepared to put their hand up to be tested for that under the guise of anonymity.

“And our players are the only ones that seem to no longer enjoy that cloak of anonymity, so they’ve been betrayed in some sense and it wouldn’t surprise me if they felt that a little bit.”

Buckley said the Pies hadn’t harped on the issue in the leadup to Saturday’s game.

“We didn’t dwell on it, we spoke about it briefly, but to mine, we’re human and our boys are human,” he said.

“I hate making excuses but in some shape and form we were different tonight.”