What does it cost a club if its player challenges a charge and loses?

For Classifiable Offences with a fixed one, two or three-match suspension:

• Wholly unsuccessful challenge: the player gets the original sanction and the club is levied $10,000, counted as football department expenditure under the soft cap (Rule 50 of the AFL Rules).
• Successful challenge: if the player wins the downgrade he challenged, the club is not levied.
• Partly successful challenge: if the player challenges two or more aspects (say conduct and impact) and wins only one, he receives the downgraded sanction but the challenge counts as unsuccessful and the club is levied $5,000.

Example from the Guidelines: a player graded Intentional, High Impact, Body Contact for Rough Conduct (two matches) challenges both conduct and impact. If he wins only one, he gets one match and the club is levied $5,000.

Source: 2026 AFL Tribunal Guidelines, section 3.1(d).