Geelong skipper Joel Selwood has defended Brent Harvey’s hit on him as just an accident and says he’ll head to the AFL tribunal on Tuesday night in a bid to have the North Melbourne veteran’s one-match ban overturned.

The Kangaroos will challenge Harvey’s suspension in an attempt to free their champion midfielder to play in Friday night’s preliminary final against Sydney.

Harvey was issued with the one-game rough conduct ban by the AFL’s match review panel on Monday for making high contact to Selwood in last Friday night’s MCG semi-final.

Selwood was forced from the ground under the blood rule after the contact with Harvey opened up a cut over his right eye.

Selwood on Monday night downplayed the contact and said he’d be available to attend the tribunal before heading to the All Australian announcement later Tuesday evening.

“No I don’t (think he should miss the preliminary final),” Selwood told the Nine Network on Monday.

“Those collisions happen throughout the night. We’ve all seen it, it was very minor.

“The contact, I was running at speed, he was running at speed, it happens, accidents happen.

“I got a phone call from (Geelong football manager) Neil Balme this morning and he said `are you free tomorrow night if you’re needed? And I said `yeah, I’m available’.”

If his appeal fails, Harvey is set to miss his fourth match in five weeks after he was unsuccessful in overturning a misconduct charge in round 21.