Geelong players are adamant the AFL club's concussion saga hasn't been a distraction as the Cats gear up for finals while relishing Jake Kolodjashnij's return to the fold.
The Cats were last week fined $140,000 for failing to officially let the AFL know about the concussion waiver in Kolodjashnij's contract.
The penalty is $100,000 plus a suspended sanction of $40,000, which stems from the league fining Geelong last October after an investigation into the club's third-party agreements.
Kolodjashnij, who came forward as the player involved shortly after the story broke and has not played at any level since, returned to the club last week ahead of the finals.
When asked about Kolodjashnij's return, midfielder Tom Atkins, the defender's 2022 premiership teammate, said: "Awesome. Kola's one of my favourite teammates, so yeah, to see him back, feeling a bit better.
"Obviously we'd love him to be back playing and back in training, but hopefully that can get itself sorted soon.
"But just having him in the rooms and seeing him smiling again is good."
Asked on Monday whether he or another player had a discussion around a similar concussion agreement, Atkins said: "No".
The experienced midfielder indicated the concussion saga, and last week's handing down of a fine, hadn't been discussed with the players.
"No, it's very much been, our focus has been performing on the weekends, and yeah, we just wanted to make sure Kola was alright as teammates and as friends," Atkins said.
"That's probably the extent of the detail that we looked into it as players. So yeah, just care for Kola, that's pretty much it."
Geelong start their September campaign in Friday night's blockbuster elimination final against Carlton at the MCG.
Asked whether the concussion saga had been a distraction, Atkins said: "not at all.
"Each individual's different, but I think Jake himself - that's the last thing he'd want - to distract from our performance.
"And I think it's a good quality of our playing group is we're mature and we're able to compartmentalise a bit.
"So we can show care for Jake during the week, but we can also put that to the side and perform on the weekend. I think we've done that."
