MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MAY 29: Tom Hawkins of the Cats drops a mark during the round 10 AFL match between the Carlton Blues and the Geelong Cats at Etihad Stadium on May 29, 2016 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

North Melbourne coach Brad Scott has gotten stuck into the MRP after it handed Geelong forward Tom Hawkins a one-week ban for striking GWS co-captain Phil Davis.

The star forward was offered a two-game ban, which was reduced to one with an early guilty plea.

The Cats opted not to appeal the ban, as they risked losing Hawkins for two matches.

Cats' coach Chris Scott said the club was "shocked" to learn that Hawkins would be missing the match against the Kangaroos and his brother Brad echoed his sentiments.

“This is the one where it seems to be it flies in the face of all the previous other decisions,” Brad Scott said.

“It didn’t look like a reportable offence, let alone a two-week suspension type offence.

“If the MRP has made a statement then that’s really unfortunate for Tom because they’ve made it probably after the fact.

“It’s all very well to say players are on notice now. But Tom didn’t get much notice did he?

“The frustrating thing was Mark Evans made it very clear when he took over that we don’t want players to miss games unless they do something stupid that deserves to miss games.

“For these innocuous sorts of things that we don’t want really like and we don’t want to condone, we’ll fine the players for that, and that’s the way it has always been since Mark came in.”

Geelong play North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

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