Richmond midfielder Daniel Jackson will miss the AFL club's next three games after failing to beat a headbutting charge at the AFL Tribunal.

The 24-year-old, who was the Tigers' best player in Sunday's three-point loss to Hawthorn, could have accepted a two-match ban had he pleaded guilty to headbutting Hawk defender Campbell Brown.

Instead, he argued that the contact he made with Brown late in the match was too light to constitute a headbutt, and also that he was not in a fit state of mind to control his own actions after being heavily bumped by Brown moments earlier.

But the tribunal disagreed on both counts and also turned down a plea by the Tigers to reduce the penalty on the basis of exceptional and compelling circumstances, given Jackson was provoked by Brown and was being helped from the ground at the time.

Jackson, a member of the club's leadership group, ruled out appealing, meaning he will miss Saturday night's Dreamtime clash with Essendon at the MCG, as well as games against Port Adelaide and St Kilda.

"It's a disappointing outcome, we thought we had a really good case ... a lot of people who saw the incident live would have agreed with what we were arguing," Jackson said.

"But obviously the tribunal didn't agree, so I'll just cop my penance."

Jackson told the tribunal he had only a vague memory of events, after being heavily bumped front-on by Brown as he was crouching over the ball.

Richmond doctor Greg Hickey, who was escorting Jackson from the field, also gave evidence, saying the player had shown a past tendency to turn aggressive after receiving knocks to the head.

"His response when he gets a minor episode where he gets a knock to the head is to get a bit agitated," Hickey said.

"It's probably been more than once, it's probably been two or three times when he has got aggressive towards me when I tried to help him."

Hickey said he assessed Jackson as not having "control of all his senses" after copping the knock from Brown.

Jackson's advocate Michael Tovey QC described the contact as "more of a scraping motion" than a blow and said Brown's reaction of laughing indicated it was not forceful.

It was Jackson's second tribunal visit this season, after being found guilty of striking Melbourne skipper James McDonald in round four.

On that occasion, he was reprimanded, but the carry-over demerit points lifted Tuesday's ban from two to three matches.

Earlier, Carlton key-position player Jarrad Waite accepted a two-match suspension for engaging in rough conduct against Port Adelaide's Jason Davenport.

Fremantle forward Hayden Ballantyne and Hawks skipper Sam Mitchell were both fined $900 for separate hair-pulling incidents, while Melbourne defender Matthew Warnock was docked $900 for making negligent contact with an umpire.

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