Taylor Walker will miss the next two games against Carlton and Collingwood after accepting a two-match ban for his tackle on Geelong defender Harry Taylor in the first quarter at AAMI Stadium on Saturday.

Walker was not penalised with a free-kick at the time, but the Match Review Panel on Monday charged him with a level two offence for 'engaging in rough conduct'.

The contact was deemed to be negligent, of medium impact and high.

The 22-year-old, who accepted a reprimand for front-on contact against Port Adelaide defender Jacob Surjan in round five, had a previous bad record (93.75 carry-over points) which meant the two-game sanction had to remain at two matches, even with an early guilty plea.

Walker would’ve risked a three-match ban by contesting the charge at the AFL Tribunal, and Football Operations Manager Phil Harper said in the end it wasn’t worth the risk.

“After much deliberation, we decided that it was too great a risk to contest the charge,” Harper said.

“We certainly didn’t think the impact was medium - we thought it was low - but it wasn’t worth the possibility of a three-game ban, which would’ve effectively seen Taylor miss four weeks of football because of our bye in round 11.”

The MRP findings were as follows:

Based on the video evidence available and a medical report from the Geelong Cats Football Club, the incident was assessed as negligent conduct (one point), medium impact (two points) and high contact (two points). This is a total of five activation points, resulting in a classification of a Level Two offence, drawing 225 demerit points and a two-match sanction. He has a bad record of 93.75 demerit points, increasing the penalty to 318.75 points and a two-match sanction. An early plea reduces the penalty by 25 per cent to 239.06 points and a two-match sanction.