Waite was offered a one-match suspension for making contact with his head to Melbourne defender Tom McDonald in the first quarter of Sunday's game.
The Blues will determine on Tuesday whether to accept the sanction or risk a two-match suspension by taking it to the Tribunal, with Malthouse admitting challenging such a decision made him "nervous".
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Malthouse told 3AW it had been frustrating for Waite to be sidelined by injury and he suspected the action might have been caused by exuberance and desperation to contribute to the team's cause.
"There are ways and means of doing it I guess and he has fallen foul of the law," Malthouse said.
"I still think that Jarrad is the type of player when his energy levels are up he does help us and we have to be very careful about being too critical."
Malthouse said that although it was possible to focus on the negative – that Waite had received a week's suspension – the positive was that Waite marked the ball 10 times in his first senior game for the season.
"If we can keep him sound I think he will add to that forward line," Malthouse said.
Waite kicked two goals in the Blues win against the Demons.
