Carlton captain Chris Judd will miss the first three matches of the 2010 AFL season, unless the Blues launch an appeal which clears their superstar of a misconduct charge.

Judd was found guilty of making unnecessary and unreasonable contact to the face of Brisbane's Michael Rischitelli during Saturday night's elimination final at the Gabba.

He then failed in a separate bid to have his three-game sanction reduced on the basis of "exceptional and compelling circumstances".

But the 2004 Brownlow medallist and West Coast premiership skipper of 2006 has left open the option of taking the case to the appeals board.

"Obviously I'm disappointed with the outcome," Judd said immediately after Tuesday night's hearing.

"But now we'll go and assess our options and we'll make further comment at a later date. That's all I can really say right now."

Judd was captured by television cameras with the fingers of his left hand moving around near Rischitelli's eye while the Brisbane player was lying on the ground early in the second quarter of the Gabba clash.

He argued he was simply trying to hold Rischitelli's head down to prompt him to get his arm away from Carlton's Shaun Grigg.

Judd attempted to backtrack on comments he made to media on Sunday that he had been searching for a "pressure point" at the back of the Lion's head.

He said those comments were made during a press conference organised at short notice, and on limited sleep, after he and fellow Blues players had been at a bar the previous night commiserating over the end of their season.

"I tried to make light of the situation by referring to what WWE wrestlers would call a pressure point," he said.

"It was stupid to make light of the situation with a poorly-timed joke.

"I guess you make those sorts of errors when you're coming off a half-hour's sleep.

"I wouldn't know where to start to find a pressure point. I have no formal training in martial arts, no form of training whatsoever.

"It was not my intention. My intention was to pull him away from Shaun Grigg."

He also denied he had been trying to make contact with Rischitelli's eye, saying his fingers had moved around because it was a muggy night and the player's face was slippery.

But tribunal counsel Jeff Gleeson said Judd's explanation was "implausible" and it was open to the jury to find a "less benign" explanation.

"He doesn't look like a player holding down a head, he looks like a player searching round a face," Gleeson said.

Judd acknowledged there was no need to touch Rischitelli's face at all.

"Looking at what it's caused you would certainly say that," he said.

But he argued the contact was so light it was not enough to constitute the "low impact" with which he was charged.

After the guilty verdict was handed down, Judd's advocate David Grace argued for the penalty to be downgraded, saying the impact of the contact was so low it should be regarded as an exceptional and compelling circumstance.

He said Judd's mostly clean record, along with his status as a best and fairest winner and captain at two clubs and a Brownlow Medallist should also be taken into account.

But the jury deliberated very briefly before rejecting that application.

Essendon have three players set to enter the 2010 AFL season serving suspensions after Nathan Lovett-Murray and Mark McVeigh joined captain Matthew Lloyd on the banned list.

Lloyd, who is weighing up whether to play on next year, still has three games to serve from a four-match suspension for his bump on Hawthorn's Brad Sewell in the spiteful round 22 clash.

Lovett-Murray will be out for the first two rounds of the season and Mark McVeigh for one after fronting the tribunal on Tuesday night to face charges stemming from Friday night's big elimination final defeat to Adelaide.

But their time was not wasted, with both having their charges downgraded.

Defender Lovett-Murray had his charge of rough conduct against the Crows' Bernie Vince downgraded from intentional to reckless.

While he has still copped the same two-game sanction he would have had he pleaded guilty, it means he will carry over fewer demerit points.

McVeigh was able to persuade the tribunal that his charge of striking Vince should have been deemed as contact to the body rather than the head.

It means he will miss just one game, rather than the two he would have received for an early plea.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP