Carlton defender and ruckman Lewis Young has been freed to play after facing the AFL tribunal and having a match review charge overturned on Tuesday evening.

The Blues went to the tribunal looking to overturn a ban which was originally handed out for forceful contact, which was graded as careless conduct with high impact and body conduct.

The AFL's match review committee elected to slap Young with a controversial one-match ban for the contact on North Melbourne's Cameron Zurhaar during Saturday evening's 50-point win for the Blues.

Carlton argued before the tribunal that the conduct wasn't careless, but rather careful. The club also attempted to argue that the incident didn't have the constituent elements of a reportable offence. They also argued the impact was low to medium, rather than high, as the AFL's match review officer charged.

Young, in giving evidence said he decelerated quite quickly and got as low as he could, tucking his ar to protect the head.

The AFL's legal representative, on the other hand, said Young wasn't contesting the ball and the contact wasn't caused by circumstances outside of his control.

The arguments, technical on both sides, then discussed the positioning of Zurhaar's head and whether he was making a genuine attempt to win possession of the ball.

Carlton argued Zurhaar's head being at right angles to the ground means there is no way he could possibly have been considered to be "over the ball," while the club also made submissions that the AFL's rules regarding protection of the head are working, with this incident being a demonstration of it, rather than the other way around.

The tribunal were unconvinced that Zurhaar's head was down however, and overturned the match review officer's decision.

It means Young will now be free to play when Carlton take on Adelaide this Sunday in Round 8.