LANCE Franklin will miss Saturday night's match against Melbourne after his one-match suspension was upheld at the Tribunal.

Franklin's incident with former Richmond skipper Trent Cotchin last Friday was graded by the Match Review Officer as intentional conduct, low impact and high contact and the Swans superstar was unable to argue it down.

BLOG RECAP All the action as it happened from Lance Franklin's Tribunal case

After 75 minutes of fiery evidence and 35 minutes of deliberation on Wednesday night, Tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson said the strike was "aggressive and forceful".

"Mr Franklin intended to strike Mr Cotchin," Gleeson said.

"He was looking directly at him. His response was spontaneous sand intentional."

It concluded a heated evening in which Franklin said Cotchin "exaggerated" the contact and the AFL counsel Andrew Woods described Franklin's action as "cowardly".

Woods said Franklin was "angry" when Cotchin bumped him off the ball.

"It's an element of luck that Cotchin does not sustain a more serious injury," he said.

"It's precisely what a professional AFL player should know what not to do.

"It's brazen, it's cowardly and the opposing player isn't expecting that to happen to him.

"It's AFL, not Fight Club or a combat sport."

Sydney counsel, Duncan Miller SC, argued it was neither a strike nor intentional and Franklin should receive only a fine.

Franklin gave evidence, saying there was "no way" he would strike Cotchin high.

"My hand's open," he said. "No way would I ever do that.

"It's not in the spirit of the game."

While Franklin said Cotchin's reaction was an exaggeration, Miller took it a step further.

"I'm tempted to say he might be invited to the Logies and not the Brownlow this year."