Not for the first time in his chequered career, Geelong forward Cameron Mooney left the AFL tribunal downcast and facing a weekend without football.

Serial offender Mooney was suspended for the 10th time on Wednesday night after being found guilty of rough conduct for a high hit on Hawthorn's Rick Ladson during the Cats' fiery Easter Monday win.

He will serve a one-match ban - ruling him out of the Cats' clash with Fremantle at Subiaco Oval on Sunday - with the Cats saying they are unlikely to appeal the verdict.

Mooney had attempted to beat the ban, claiming he had not made forceful contact with Ladson's head or neck and had no reasonable alternative but to bump him.

But the tribunal found otherwise, believing he did make high contact and could have attempted to smother the ball or avoid the Hawks player, who was moving lower to the ground to kick the ball as Mooney approached.

"We find it a bit hard to know what realistic alternative Cameron had," Geelong football manager Neil Balme said after the hearing.

"We are disappointed."

Mooney told the tribunal the umpires signalled to him his contact with Ladson constituted a fair bump.

And he argued he had not made forceful contact to the Hawk's head or neck, saying the AFL's pre-season warnings about duty of care to other players in that situation was in his mind as he approached Ladson.

"Every player's seen a lot of video. We know that's there - the duty of care," Mooney told the hearing.

"I tried not to go near the head."

Should the Cats not appeal, Mooney will have missed his 15th career match through suspension - having the unenviable record of being suspended four times in the one season during 2006.

It leaves Geelong without two of their most experienced players going into the clash with the in-form Dockers, with defender Matthew Scarlett also banned for one week.

Scarlett made an early guilty plea to a misconduct conduct for kneeing Hawthorn's Michael Osborne in the groin.

Earlier Hawthorn defender Liam Shiels was suspended for two matches after the tribunal found him guilty of striking Geelong's Cameron Ling.

Shiels could have accepted a one-match ban had he pleaded guilty for a high shot on Ling.

Instead he attempted to have the contact downgraded from intentional to reckless and failed.

He will miss the Hawks' matches against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday and Collingwood the following week.

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