Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell is "bitterly disappointed" about his two-match suspension but admits his actions against Hawthorn's Paul Puopolo were reckless.

The Pies' skipper accepted the sanction handed down by the Match Review Panel on Tuesday after he was cited for rough conduct against Puopolo on Friday night.

Maxwell risked a three-match ban if he challenged the decision at the Tribunal.

"In the end, we don't feel there was any movement for us or any room to move," Maxwell said on Tuesday.

"I never set out with the intent of causing any damage, I wasn't trying to be aggressive, to hurt anyone.

"But in the end my technique and the way I went about it was not good enough.

"In the end, reckless is probably the right word."

The incident occurred off the ball in the third quarter, and saw Puopolo leave the field with a bleeding nose.

Maxwell said he had been trying to stop the small Hawk from getting back to the contest and accepted he needed to be better in those situations.

"I'm bitterly disappointed - I want to play in every game I can for Collingwood," he said.

"It's even harder to miss [because] it's finals - I don't think I've ever missed a final the club has been involved in since I've been part of the list.

"For me now, I have a job to do in terms of helping our players with the situation of the past 24 hours and doing everything I can to support Bucks and all the players who will be representing the club on Saturday."

Coach Nathan Buckley said the Pies probably would have challenged the verdict had there not been the risk of increasing his penalty.

Maxwell will now miss Saturday night's Semi Final against West Coast at the MCG and if the Pies win, the Preliminary Final against the Swans. 

They didn't want to risk the chance of Maxwell missing the Grand Final if the club made it.

"If there was nothing to lose [in] challenging the findings, I think we would have gone down that path," Buckley said.

"The other part of it is working out your odds of getting a favourable result.

"We felt the odds were against us and it was going to cost another week."

Buckley admitted clubs were "loath" to challenge match review findings when there was an increased penalty on the line.

"You don't know how you're going to go, the odds aren't in your favour," he said.

"In many ways, the system is pretty cut-and-dried - you take your penance."

Tyson Goldsack looms as a possible replacement for Maxwell should he overcome the ankle injury that kept him from Friday night's loss to Hawthorn.

Buckley said they would look at their options this week.
 
"Opportunity is the word of the day and the word of the week," he said.

"The captain goes out and it means there's going to be an opportunity for a player to come in and play a role for the betterment of the team."

Jennifer Witham is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs.