LACHIE Neale will have to watch Saturday's Grand Final from the sideline after his one-match ban for striking was upheld at the Tribunal on Tuesday night.

The 33-year-old was hit with the untimely suspension for an off-the-ball strike on Hawthorn's Jack Ginnivan in Saturday's thrilling preliminary final win.

Vision of the incident showed Ginnivan wrestling with Lions forward Eric Hipwood late in the first quarter, before Neale jogged over and floored Ginnivan with a left-handed strike to the stomach.

The gut punch was initially graded as intentional, medium impact and body contact by Match Review Officer Michael Christian, drawing a one-game suspension, but the Lions chose to argue the charge at the Tribunal.

Despite numerous precedents this season of other players being banned for one match for similar strikes, the Lions went in with a three-fold argument.

Firstly, they argued that it was not a strike. They then argued if it was classified as a strike, it is of low impact and not medium which would downgrade it to a fine.

And then if the Tribunal was against those two, their argument was "exceptional and compelling circumstances" that apply.

However, none of the arguments stood and Neale's one-match ban was upheld.

More to come