RICHMOND midfielder Ben Cousins has been fined a total of $10,000 for his offensive gesture to a TV camera in the rooms before Saturday night's clash with Fremantle at Subiaco Oval.

The club and AFL have both sanctioned Cousins $5000 for the incident, however, half of his penalty from the Tigers has been suspended for 12 months.

The League's fine has also been suspended in full for that period, provided Cousins pays his club penalty and doesn't re-offend.

A statement was released by the AFL on Tuesday night, with football operations manager Adrian Anderson confirming that a written explanation had been received from Cousins along with his apology for the incident.

"Mr Anderson said the AFL had taken into account the Richmond Football Club’s decision to impose a financial sanction, his apology and his explanation and decided to impose a sanction of $5000," it read.

Within his explanation to the League, Cousins also noted his column in a Melbourne newspaper was written before he had seen the footage and agreed he had not been contrite enough.

"I met with the club this morning and have accepted their fine," Cousins said in a statement released by Richmond, also on Tuesday night.

"I apologised for raising my finger and explained that it was not a gesture I ever thought would go to air.

"I hadn’t seen the footage until yesterday (Monday) afternoon and wasn’t aware of my facial expression. Once I viewed the footage I realised why the public, the AFL and the Richmond Football Club were offended by my actions."

Richmond's general manager of football Craig Cameron said Cousins' action was "a breach of our standards".

"We have key behaviours and standards that the playing group are supposed to uphold," he said. "...that is why it was important that Ben apologised and was also fined.

"As far as we are concerned the issue has been addressed by the club, we have told Ben we were disappointed with his actions and we are all ready to move on from this topic."

Cousins said on Melbourne radio station Nova 100 on Monday morning that, "one of the cameramen is a mate of mine … I thought on the off chance he might've been sitting in the van, he might've got a giggle out of it."

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said on ABC Radio on Sunday that he was disappointed with Cousins' action and warned he would receive a 'please explain' about it.