IT'S NOT something you hear every day, but Geelong coach Chris Scott believes it's not a bad thing his forward Tom Hawkins has been sent to the Tribunal.

Hawkins was charged with making intentional contact with an umpire during Geelong's big 61-point win over Greater Western Sydney, and referred directly to the Tribunal.

He pushed umpire Dean Margetts' left hand away in the second quarter.

Interviewed after the match, Hawkins said he believed the hand had belonged to a GWS opponent rather than the umpire.

"Clearly any opinion I have is biased towards Geelong, and people should listen to it as such, but Tom's a pretty forthright, pretty honest type of guy. He actually explained his position almost in the moment, straight away post-game," Scott told Fox Footy.

"I trust Tom implicitly. That's pretty much the situation, even with a couple of days to contemplate his predicament, but I still go back to what he felt in the moment. I thought he spoke pretty honestly and frankly post-game.

"This is one of the rare cases in my view, where I actually think, even though we've got a vested interest, it's not a bad thing putting it up to the Tribunal.

"I said this on radio on Saturday morning, it gives Tom a chance to say his piece and at the very least, make it clear there was contact – he acknowledges that – there shouldn't be contact with umpires, it should be avoided at all costs. But this wasn't a situation where he thought, 'I'm going to push an umpire'."

Scott said there was actually quite a bit of incidental contact between players and umpires in matches, as football is an "invasive game".

"A lot of people would be surprised to see how much contact there actually is with umpires. Umpires touch players and they probably shouldn't, they should avoid it if possible, but it does happen," he said.

"Umpires are coached to come in really close when an incident happens. A bit of inadvertent contact happens quite a bit.

"I think originally when we talked about players touching umpires, I suspect it was back in the dark old days before any of us were around when there was the potential for umpires to be in physical danger, so it was just, 'Do not touch umpires under any circumstances'."

Scott also confirmed superstar midfielder Gary Ablett would return against Collingwood on Sunday, after fully recovering from a strained hamstring.