Melbourne defender Matthew Whelan can accept a one match suspension, with an early plea, after being charged with a level three striking offence by the Match Review Panel.

Whelan was charged with striking Carlton’s Brendan Fevola during the third quarter of Sunday’s game.

In summary, his two-match sanction can be reduced to one match with an early plea.

The incident was assessed as intentional conduct (three points), low impact (one point) and high contact (two points). This is a total of six activation points, resulting in a classification of a Level Three offence, drawing 225 demerit points and a two-match sanction. He has an existing bad record of one match suspended within the last three years, increasing the penalty by 10 per cent to 247.50 points. An early plea reduces the penalty by 25 per cent to 185.63 points and a one-match sanction.

In other tribunal news, Melbourne forward Michael Newton has accepted a one week suspension from the VFL for striking  Ben McGlynn in the fourth quarter of the Sandringham v Box Hill game on Sunday.