Carlton skipper Chris Judd is still eligible to win his second Brownlow Medal this season but will miss the first three home-and-away games of 2010 after being found guilty of making unreasonable and unnecessary contact to the face of Brisbane's Michael Rischitelli on Tuesday night.

Judd could have accepted a two-match ban but chose to risk a longer suspension by opting to fight the charge at the AFL tribunal.

The Blues chose to fight the charge on the basis that Judd's actions were below the minimum level of low impact needed to justify a reportable offence.

Judd's advocate David Grace QC said the whole incident had lasted less than a second and was merely a case of a player trying to drag an opposition player off one of his team-mates after Rischitelli had become entangled on the ground with Judd's team-mate Shaun Grigg during the second quarter of Saturday night's elimination final at the Gabba.

"There was no intent to cause any harm whatsoever," Grace said of Judd's actions.

But the AFL's legal counsel Jeff Gleeson SC said the level of impact required for a guilty verdict in cases of making unnecessary contact to the face should be less than in other cases because of the greater vulnerability of injury to the face and in particular the eyes in such incidents.

"If you find that there was no need for Chris Judd to touch his face at all then even relatively minor contact is unnecessary," Gleeson successfully argued.

"This wasn't in the play, Rischitelli would not have expected contact and could not have defended himself (as Judd was standing over him) and this was not an event that should have occurred on the football field."

The highly-respected Judd - who had beaten a similar charge in 2007 but only after Hawthorn's Campbell Brown was later fined for giving false evidence to the tribunal - had caused controversy in the lead-up to the hearing by saying he had placed his hands on Rischitelli's face to apply martial arts style 'pressure points' to the Brisbane player.

But Judd backed away from those comments on Tuesday night saying he had made them in jest on Sunday morning, upon the team's arrival back into Melbourne, after being asked to do a press conference by a Carlton official at short notice after only 30 minutes' sleep.

"In hindsight it was pretty stupid to make light of the situation," Judd said of those comments, which he said were made before he was charged and without realising the seriousness of the situation.

Judd said he had only spoken about applying pressure points to Rischitelli as a joking reference to the 'World Wrestling Federation', which he said he used to watch regularly with team-mates during his time at West Coast.

"I wouldn't even know where to start to apply a pressure point," he said.

"I have had no training in martial arts whatsoever and my intention merely was to hold him (Rischitelli) off."

Judd admitted he should not have touched Rischitelli but said he did so only to help Grigg regain his feet after a stoppage as the game was about to re-start with a bounce.

"The force was so minimal that it didn't warrant a free-kick (at the time) and it didn't warrant a report," he said.

"I agree it was certainly a mistake (to put his hands on Rischitelli's face) but it (the level of force involved) was a non-event, it was very minimal force."

But the three-man jury of former players - Richard Loveridge, Emmett Dunne and Wayne Henwood - disagreed.

Grace also argued for a reduction in Judd's points tally of 325 points based on 'exceptional and compelling circumstances' due to not only the low level of impact but Judd's standing in the game as the 2004 Brownlow Medalist, reigning All-Australian captain and three-time best-and-fairest winner.

But the jury ruled the initial penalty should stand in what was only the second suspension of Judd's career - the other being a one-match ban for striking St Kilda tagger Steven Baker in 2005 - over an incident which leaves the first serious black mark on the career of one of the AFL's most respected players.

However Judd is still eligible to win the Brownlow not only this season but also next season because the game's highest individual honour only covers the home-and-away season while this suspension occurred in a final.

Afterwards the Blues did not rule out an appeal.

"I am obviously disappointed with the outcome but now we will go and assess our options and make further comment at a later date and that is all I can really say right now," Judd said after the hearing.