Carlton midfielder Adam Cerra has been fined $5500 for umpire contact after a bizarre tribunal hearing, while North Melbourne ruckman Tristan Xerri and Brisbane gun Zac Bailey have both failed to overturn their bans.

Under the AFL’s measures announced at the start of the month, Cerra was referred directly to the tribunal after a collision in last week’s loss to Brisbane.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Adam Cerra sent to tribunal for umpire contact.

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It was the fourth time he had been booked for the offence within two years, triggering the hearing. He is the first player to fall foul of the new measures.

Normally, players accept fines for umpire contact, but the AFL is concerned about the growing prevalence of the collisions, which most often happen at centre bounces.

Players are currently fined $1000 for a first offence, $1875 for a second offence and $3125 for a third offence.

Cerra could have faced a suspension, but the AFL argued for a $6250 fine, while Carlton said the sanction should be no more than $5000, saying he likely would have contested previous charges had the direct referral for umpire contact been in place before this month.

Cerra, who watched the hearing via video link but didn’t give any evidence, pleaded guilty.

The 25-year-old had been backing away from Lions opponent Lachie Neale late in the second quarter when he made contact with Rob O’Gorman.

The hearing lasted just over an hour with lawyers effectively arguing over $1250.

“To penalise Cerra for the higher number of umpire contacts this year would be unfair,” Blues barrister Elizabeth Bateman told the panel.

“It would be punishing him for events that he has absolutely no control over.”

In the end, the tribunal found Cerra guilty and landed on a $5500 fine, which could be seen as a slight win for Carlton given it’s $125 less than halfway between the two starting points.

For context, Gold Coast midfielder Matt Rowell was recently fined $5000 for his fourth offence of careless umpire contact without the need of a tribunal hearing.

Carlton were also hit with a separate $5000 fine as part of the crackdown.

Prominent commentator Gerard Whateley was scathing in his assessment of the case.

“Tonight, the AFL has reached new levels of high farce,” he said on Fox Footy.

“I don’t dismiss the broader principal, which is important... (but) it has gone too far. The AFL is duty-bound to its umpires to address it — the only way to do that is to confront players.

“If you wanted to make a stand, and a stand worth making, you had to leave the spectre of suspension on the table — at least for a while, but that was withdrawn immediately.

“This is just wasting everybody’s time. If you want to ramp the fines up, just write it into the guidelines and ramp the fines up.”

Fans were up in arms over the Cerra hearing.

“Huge outcome! What a colossal waste of everyone’s time,” one fan said.

“Adam Cerra tribunal is a perfect example of how dysfunctional and messed up AFL is. They are arguing over $1250 while paying all the legal reps and tribunal members much more to hold this hearing. Sack them all!” Another said.

“I would’ve paid the extra money just to move on from this tribunal. Pointless,” another said.

“Could of been done in an email,” another added.

Despite the outcome being just $500 more than before the crackdown, tribunal chairman Jeff Gleeson said players are on notice.

“Players who repeatedly commit offence of careless contact with an umpire will not necessarily benefit from an incrementally increased fine, or indeed that a fine will always be the appropriate sanction,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bailey failed to overturn his one-match ban for rough conduct on Carlton veteran Nick Haynes.

Brisbane’s lawyer Adrian Anderson tried to have the charge downgraded from medium to low impact, meaning Bailey would be fined instead of missing this Friday night’s clash with the Western Bulldogs.

Haynes was not injured in the incident and played out the match, but did touch his face to acknowledge there was high contact made.

Anderson used seven examples of bumps similar to Bailey’s that were graded low.

But the tribunal disagreed and decided to accept the match review officer’s grading of medium impact.

“The bump was high and had the potential to cause injury ... the tribunal is not bound by previous decisions,” Gleeson said.

The last matter for the night was Xerri, who failed to overturn his three-match suspension for an incident that resulted in Melbourne midfielder Tom Sparrow being concussed.

North attempted to downgrade the charge from careless conduct, which would have resulted in Xerri escaping suspension.

Despite giving evidence, with Xerri saying he reached out to Sparrow by text to check if he was OK, the 26-year-old wasn’t successful.

Xerri, who is contention for an All-Australian berth, will sit out matches against Sydney, Geelong and St Kilda.

- With AAP