THE AFL and martial arts movie star Steven Seagal made for strange bedfellows when Carlton captain Chris Judd's appeal of his three-match suspension was thrown out on Thursday night.

Judd will have a delayed start to the 2010 season after he failed to convince the AFL appeals board the penalty handed to him by Tuesday night's tribunal was unwarranted.

The AFL match review panel found the 26-year-old had made unnecessary contact to the face of Michael Rischitelli during Carlton's elimination final loss to the Brisbane Lions last weekend and the club chose to contest the charge.

On arriving at Melbourne airport on Sunday, Judd added fuel to the flames with a bizarre explanation that involved martial arts and pressure points.

He later said he was joking but the whole situation has left the champion midfielder remorseful.

"I'm disappointed with the result," Judd said from Etihad Stadium after his appeal.

"Obviously the act itself was less than a second's worth of stupidity, [but] probably even more stupid were my comments in the press the next day with reference to a pressure point.

"Obviously this is something which I know nothing about.

"It was a comment which evoked a lot of passion amongst both the media and the public alike. I've since watched a couple of Steven Seagal movies and realised that pressure points are no laughing matter.

"I look forward to watching Carlton starting strongly next year and look forward to taking the field in round four."

Judd had been offered a two-match ban with an early plea after the incident which was deemed intentional conduct, low impact and high contact.

However, he is still eligible to win this year's Brownlow Medal because the incident occured in a final and not a home and away fixture.

World Wrestling Entertainment even got a run during the 90-minute hearing. Counsel for Carlton, David Grace QC, maintained that Tuesday night's decision was so unreasonable that no tribunal acting reasonably could have come to it from the evidence and that the classification of the offence and the sanction imposed were manifestly excessive.

The wrestling reference was part of Grace's reason for Judd's pressure point claim with the player apparently a big fan of the sport in his days at West Coast.

Grace also argued the AFL video distributed to clubs presented low impact offences with blows causing pain, unlike Judd's contact on Rischitelli, and that the lack of a free kick or remonstration from Lions players also pointed to his client's innocence.

In rebutting the defence's submission, Jeff Gleeson SC put forward six points of reference against Grace's 45-minute appeal.

The appeals board, consisting of Peter O'Callaghan QC, Brian Collis QC and Michael Green, agreed on the outcome after just six minutes' deliberation.