HAWTHORN will be without star forward Lance Franklin for this weekend's virtual elimination final against Essendon after he failed to beat a charge of rough conduct at the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night.

The hearing lasted for 70-minutes but the jury only took 12 minutes to find Franklin guilty of the charge. The Hawks have not yet said if they will appeal the verdict, with football manager Mark Evans saying they will take further advice on the subject after talking to Adrian Anderson, the AFL's football operations manager.

There was a deal of confusion after the hearing, with tribunal chairman John Hassett directing the jury that they were not able to find that the bump itself was unreasonable, but instead had to decide whether Franklin had other options open to him, namely laying a tackle.

Evans said as he left the hearing with Franklin that one aspect of the summing up had perplexed him.

"It didn't go our way so that's a very disappointing result for us," he said.

"I find it a little distressing that in summing up we can regard someone's conduct as reasonable, but they can still miss two matches.

"It's very disappointing and we'll be following that up with Adrian tomorrow."

Franklin will now miss the round 22 clash against Essendon and either the first week of the finals, if the Hawks make the eight, or round one next season, and will carry 25 demerit points on his record.

The 22-year-old said he was extremely disappointed by the outcome, saying he felt he had done nothing wrong.

"I'm very devastated, I'd love to be out there with the boys this weekend and the weekend after," he said.

Last year's Coleman Medallist was charged by the match review panel for his third-quarter hit on Richmond midfielder Ben Cousins at the MCG on Saturday - which knocked out the former Eagle - and was given a two week penalty, reduced to one week with an early plea, an offer the Hawks rejected.

Cousins didn't return to the field after the bump, which was graded as negligent conduct, medium impact and high contact.

Despite missing training with the Tigers on Tuesday and a probable slight concussion, Cousins is expected to be right for this weekend's trip back to Perth play West Coast, the club he captained and won a flag and a Brownlow with.

Franklin was attempting to join a fair sized group of players who have successfully challenged rough conduct charges this season, but instead joins Saint Zac Dawson, who had a one-game penalty doubled last month after failing to make a case. Fellow Hawks Campbell Brown and Simon Taylor both had suspensions overturned, as did Collingwood's Nick Maxwell (on appeal) and Essendon's Paddy Ryder.