Tom Hawkins' one-match suspension for striking Phil Davis flies in the face of all previous decisions made since Mark Evans took over responsibility for the Match Review Panel, according to North Melbourne coach Brad Scott.

Hawkins will miss Geelong's clash against North on Saturday night after the MRP accessed his punch to the chin of Greater Western Sydney captain Davis as warranting a two-match suspension.

The Cats spearhead escaped with a one-game ban by entering an early plea.

Scott told reporters on Wednesday he had been "extremely surprised" by Hawkins' suspension, saying it seemed inconsistent with the approach the MRP had undertaken since Evans' appointment as AFL football operations manager in 2013.

"When I was told about it, I thought they had made a mistake and they were talking about another player who the MRP might have been looking at. It didn't look like a reportable offence, let alone a two-week suspension type offence," Scott said.

"If the MRP have made a statement, that's really unfortunate for Tom because they have 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.

"The really unsavoury incidents, players should get suspended and players know that, but I thought he made it really clear that for these innocuous sort of things, that we don't really like and we don't want to condone, we'll fine the players for that.

"And that's the way it's always been since Mark came in. This is the one time where it seems to fly in the face of all the previous other decisions."

Evans overhauled the MRP system at the end of 2014, removing carryover points and putting a greater emphasis on issuing fines for minor offences, rather than suspensions.

Scott said it was likely the MRP would now crack down on punches to the head like Hawkins in the wake of the Cat's suspension.

"Well, just for credibility you have to, don't you?" the Roos coach said.