WHILE "the football world" disagreed with Tom Hawkins' suspension, Geelong coach Chris Scott said on Thursday the Cats had moved on.
He said the footy community had made its feelings known on the Match Review Panel banning the key forward for a match for striking GWS defender Phil Davis, but in deciding not to appeal the club saw the possibility of "a bad decision being magnified twice".
Scott said the appeals system was stacked against the appellant, and the risk of losing Hawkins for two matches was too great.
"We'd prefer to have Tom, but we haven't," Scott said.
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"No-one should assume that we are happy with it [the suspension]. I think that goes without saying. I don't need to say it any more. We clearly disagree. I think the football world disagrees.
"In football and in life sometimes mistakes are made and you have just got to deal with it so we think we're really well prepared to deal with the situation."
Scott said the club would not turn its attention to whether the appeals system needed to be changed until later in the season, because at the moment it had "bigger fish to fry."
Match preview: Geelong v North Melbourne
He said talls Rhys Stanley and Nathan Vardy would be included in the squad but the final forward structure for Saturday's clash with North Melbourne would remain in-house.
The Cats have won four of the six games they have played without Hawkins since the 2011 Grand Final – one of the losses was the 2013 qualifying final – and Scott said his absence presented an opportunity.
"We don't have anyone in our club who can play his (Hawkins) role the same way he does," Scott said.
"So there is the opportunity for us to set up a little bit differently, make ourselves a little less predictable to the opposition … the challenge for the opposition now is to wonder what we are going to do."
Scott said the Cats were preparing for Todd Goldstein to play for North Melbourne. He said the Kangaroo was clearly the game's No.1 ruckman and shaped as a big obstacle for the Cats.
"That is a challenge, but we think we have got a few good ones too," Scott said.
Ruckman Zac Smith was one of the Cats' best against Greater Western Sydney last week but he has no time to rest on his laurels.
"It's an opportunity for them to take on a really good player if [Goldstein] plays and somehow find a way," Scott said.
Scott said the Kangaroos were a difficult team to combat but the Cats had the game to match them.
"They are on top of the ladder for a reason," Scott said.
