Neale was offered a one-match suspension for striking Hawthorn's Jack Ginnivan in Saturday night's preliminary final.
The dual Brownlow medallist challenged the ban, arguing at the tribunal on Tuesday night that his action wasn't a strike, but a body check.
After a dramatic four-and-a-half hour hearing, the tribunal upheld the charge and dismissed pleas for a downgrade due to exceptional and compelling circumstances.
Neale will miss Saturday's grand final between Brisbane and Fremantle at the MCG unless the Lions successfully challenge the tribunal verdict at the AFL appeals board.
The club is yet to signal intent to appeal.
Neale's off-the-ball blow on Ginnivan was graded as intentional conduct, medium impact and body contact by match review officer Michael Christian.
The 33-year-old argued contact was made with his shoulder and chest and wasn't a strike.
Neale said Ginnivan "might have taken a bit of a dive to get a free kick".
"My shoulder made contact with his body and shoulder first and my arm wrapped around Jack," he said.
"But I didn't feel like I was striking him at all. It was more a bump or body-check."
But the AFL's counsel Andrew Woods KC said Neale's action was "a very clear strike".
"It's a forceful arm ... that swings straight into his opponent player," Woods said.
Neale's counsel Adrian Anderson disagreed.
"Whilst first-flush looking at this vision it does look like it is a punch to the guts, a careful and close analysis of the vision, and consideration of what Lachie Neale says, reaches the conclusion that it is not," Anderson said.
Anderson said if the tribunal found Neale did strike Ginnivan, it should enact the 'exceptional and compelling circumstance' clause.
He cited the Scott Pendlebury case from March, when the Collingwood great had a one-match ban for rough conduct downgraded to a fine because of the clause.
Pendlebury had never faced the tribunal or been suspended before in his 21-year career.
And Neale, in his 15-year career, had also never previously been banned.
But, as Woods noted, the Lions ace had been found guilty of eight prior reportable offences, including three for striking. All were met with sanctions less than a ban.
After hearing 130 minutes of evidence, tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson and panel members Scott Stevens and Darren Gaspar deliberated for a further two hours and 20 minutes before delivering a verdict, which Gleeson took 11 minutes to read before the outcome.
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