Hawthorn's Peter Everitt has been suspended for one week by the AFL tribunal for negligently making contact with an umpire, deepening the Hawks big-man deficit.

Everitt collided with field umpire Darren Morris in his first game for Hawthorn after 180 games for St Kilda and will now miss the trip to Launceston this weekend to take on West Coast.

It left the Hawks with a dire shortage of talls for the match, as Nathan Thompson and Nick Holland will be absent with injury.

In tonight's other case, Brisbane's Brad Scott was cleared of striking Essendon's Damien Peverill after being called to the tribunal following a league investigation into a scuffle that left the Bombers midfielder bleeding freely from a head wound.

Everitt said the contact with Morris was the umpire's fault more than his, as he backed away too slowly after bouncing the ball and left himself in the path of players moving in to contest it.

As he ran in with eyes on the ball the towering Hawk clipped the umpire around the shoulder blade, knocking him to the ground.

Everitt estimated he had contested more than 5000 bounces in his 11-year career and had never before contacted an umpire, as they moved in a consistent pace and manner after bouncing the ball - something that did not happen here.

"It's definitely an accident but I still believe it could have been avoided if the usual process went through," Everitt said.

"I kept moving toward the football thinking the umpire would be clearly out of my way.

"If he'd gone back two or three metres he would have avoided contact."

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