Ben Cousins can expect to be dealt with by his club as well as the AFL over the one-fingered salute he said was a joke to a television cameraman friend.

Cousins stared down a camera in the dressing room and flipped his middle finger while preparing for Richmond's clash with Fremantle in Perth on Saturday night.

While the AFL is expected to mete punishment later this week, Cousins can also expect the Tigers to consider action against their star midfielder.

Richmond football manager Craig Cameron said the player leadership group and club officials would soon meet with Cousins and decide whether he deserved an internal penalty.

"I spoke to the leadership group this morning and we'll all sit down and have a chat with Ben and deal with it in the appropriate manner," Cameron said on Monday.

"You can rest assured that we're actually going to deal with the process."

Cousins has explained the offensive gesture as a joke to a cameraman friend.

He told Melbourne radio station Nova FM on Monday he thought his friend may have been watching from the broadcast van.

"I'd just arrived at the ground and one of the cameramen ... who was freelancing that particular day is a mate of mine who'd worked on the documentary," he said.

"I thought on the off-chance he may have been sitting in the van he might have had a bit of a giggle about it.

"It wasn't intended at anyone, least of all the WA public or the media.

"There was no malice in it whatsoever ... it wasn't something I really thought too much about."

"It was very naive on my behalf to think that it wouldn't get attention."

The Tigers released a short statement late Sunday night in which Cousins said he had not intended to cause any offence.

However during the radio interview he said he still found the gesture "quite humorous" and hoped others took it that way.

AFL boss Andrew Demetriou expressed his anger over Cousins' gesture, referring the incident to the football operations department rather than the match review panel where he would have faced a maximum $1,200 fine.

Richmond teammate Nathan Brown was slugged with a $5,000 fine in 2002 for a similar offence when playing for the Western Bulldogs, flipping "the bird" to the crowd after kicking a goal.

And the AFL has a recent history of "please explains" followed by hefty fines for those deemed to have crossed the line.

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett received a $5,000 fine last month for public criticism of umpires.

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