GEELONG coach Chris Scott says it's a "shattering situation" that Cats star Tom Stewart will miss the Grand Final due to concussion, adding there are "pros and cons" to the current bye structure in finals.

Stewart was subbed out of Friday night's preliminary final after a dumping tackle from Hawks forward Mabior Chol, which saw his head plant into the turf.

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Chol pinned Stewart's arms in the tackle, which came late in the first quarter with Hawthorn leading by 20 points at the time.

Stewart will now enter the AFL's mandatory 12-day concussion protocols, meaning he will not be available to play in the Grand Final next Saturday.

It mirrors the fate of Adelaide's AFLW player Chelsea Randall, who missed the 2021 Grand Final after being concussed in the preliminary final.

"Generally in these situations, you change your mind depending on what it means for you. So I'm very pro a week off before the Grand Final, if we can sneak that in this year," Scott said, tongue-in-cheek, of the Stewart situation after Geelong's 30-point win.

"In a perverse way, it's black and white. We know (he's not playing), he knows - it's a shattering situation for him."

Cats star Patrick Dangerfield says he was devastated for his close friend and long-time teammate.

"He's one of my great friends. It's not just the playing part for me, it's the person he is," Dangerfield said.

"He's been such an enormous part of the success we've been able to have as a club over a long period.

"So it's a really difficult one to digest for us - I'm enormously proud of our guys and the way they were able to cover such an enormous loss that is him.

"But the game was just half-an-hour ago - I'm not too sure what to think."

Stewart's absence from the Grand Final will intensify debate about the merits of introducing a bye before the Grand Final so players don't miss out if they are concussed in a prelim.

One idea suggested has been moving the pre-finals bye to before the Grand Final, an idea Scott believes has merit, although he didn't share a firm view either way.

"My view is informed by the rationale of doing it anyway, which I think was flawed," Scott said of the pre-finals bye, which was introduced in 2016 to stop clubs resting players en masse late in the home-and-away season. "I didn't think it was a good enough reason.

"I understand it's not optimal for the AFL to have masses of players rested for inconsequential games in the last home-and-away round of the year, but I just didn't think that was a good enough reason. I think you know how strongly I feel that the club should have autonomy over this stuff.

"I don't want to give a strong opinion, it's more an observation that others have made; if there has to be one, before the Grand Final would be better.

"I still go back to what I said two weeks ago - if you gave us the option, do you want to play next week or would you prefer to have the week off, we take the week off. 

"We looked a bit rusty, really disappointing for Stewart, but proud of the way that we hung in.

"And I'm assuming (Hawthorn) had some challenges with players that have had a hard few weeks. So depends on which side of the coin you focus on. There are pros and cons."

The AFL's new football boss Greg Swann said last month he supported moving the bye from before the finals to after the prelims.

"It's more to do with somebody getting concussed and not being able to play (in the Grand Final)," he told SEN. "That's why we think that bye would be better off before the Grand Final."

The Match Review Officer is set to rule on Chol's tackle on Saturday, with the Hawk at risk of a suspension for the start of next season.

Hawks coach Sam Mitchell said after falling short of a Grand Final, the merits or otherwise of the pre-finals bye were the furthest thing from his mind.

"You can ask me another day, I don't care right now," he said. "My mental capacity of dealing with what I'm doing with right now, I don't give a s**t. Sorry."

Another Cats defender, Jack Henry, was also injured earlier in the first quarter when teammate Connor O'Sullivan landed on his left ankle.

He was assisted from the field by two trainers, without putting any weight on the questionable ankle, then had to go to the rooms for treatment.

Henry returned to play with the ankle heavily strapped when Stewart left the field, and Scott said he should be fine to train in a few days, and the issue was a nerve flare of sorts, rather than a structural injury.

"Fortunately, the feedback we got was that it was a little bit of a nerve situation there that looked bad temporarily but came good," Scott said.

"So that's a good news story - they're ultra-confident that he will be fine to train in a couple of days.

"So that's the good news on the injury front, but the Stewart one's a bit hard to take right now."