Tom Hawkins has succeeded in his bid to downgrade a striking charge and the power Geelong forward is free to play in Saturday’s AFL clash with West Coast.

The Cats’ veteran pleaded guilty to striking but attempted to argue he didn’t collect Fremantle defender Luke Ryan high in the final quarter of Monday night’s game.

The tribunal jury of Jason Johnson, Shane Wakelin and Paul Williams wasn’t satisfied the contact warranted a one-game suspension.

The panel disagreed with match review officer Michael Christian’s grading of the incident as intentional, low impact and high contact.

Hawkins was instead fined $1000 for contact to Ryan’s body.

The 32-year-old missed last year’s preliminary-final loss to Richmond through a ban for striking West Coast’s Will Schofield.

Hawkins has played all eight of the Cats’ games this year, booting 14 goals – including three on Monday against the Dockers.