DEFENDER Neville Jetta has accepted a one-match suspension for striking and will miss this week’s match against the Brisbane Lions.

Jetta was cited for striking Marcus Bontempelli during the second quarter of the round eight match against the Western Bulldogs.

General manager of football operations Josh Mahoney said Melbourne had decided to accept the penalty, rather than risk a two-match suspension if an appeal failed.

“After going through the vision and the classification of the incident provided by the Match Review Panel we have decided, in conjunction with Neville, to accept the early guilty plea of one match,” Mahoney told melbournefc.com.au.

“As part of the decision-making process, we looked at prior similar cases that had been unsuccessful when challenging a suspension.

“This is a disappointing outcome for Neville and the club but after taking into consideration the potential of a successful challenge versus the risk of a two-match suspension, we decided that challenging the penalty wasn’t worth the risk.”

Based on the available video evidence and a medical report from the Western Bulldogs, the incident was assessed as intentional conduct with low impact to the head.

The incident was classified as a two-match sanction, with the early plea allowing Jetta to accept a one-match sanction.