Mitch Clark hits the ground running for pre-season training. Picture: Mark Dadswell Source: News Corp Australia

Scott says the arrival of Mitch Clark, Rhys Stanley and Sam Blease puts Geelong ahead after losing Christensen and Travis Varcoe in trade deals.

Christensen was traded to Brisbane for pick 21 in the draft, which the Cats used to secure Stanley from St Kilda.

Clark was effectively a straight swap for Varcoe, while former Demon Blease was signed as a delisted free agent.

“We think we’ve had a really good off-season period, during the draft and trade period we’ve been able to fill a couple of needs on our list,” Scott said on Monday.

“Some of those guys have some work to do but we think on balance our list is looking better for 2015 than it was in 2014.

“Christensen and Varcoe were losses, there’s no doubt about that, but we think more than offset by players like Stanley and Clark and Blease, who fill a real need for us.

“We know there’s a lot of hard work and there’s a lot of really good teams that are improving as well, so we’re optimistic without being overconfident.”

Geelong's draftees (from left) Jordan Cunico, Cory Gregson, Nakia Cockatoo and Dean Gore. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin Source: News Corp Australia

The acquisition of two more talls to replace quick midfielders Christensen and Varcoe raised some eyebrows, but Scott said the move was prompted by a spate of injuries to Hamish McIntosh, Nathan Vardy and Dawson Simpson.

“We have a big group of key-position and ruck players now, one of the problems we’ve had is that they haven’t always been available so having a little bit of depth there I think is going to help us.

“We didn’t bring Mitch Clark or Rhys Stanley in to solve all our problems, they just have to play a role.”

Scott admitted the Cats were losers in the Christensen deal but hoped it wouldn’t be forgotten.

“I think generally across the competition the feeling is we probably got unders for Allen, but from a club perspective the most important thing for us was his welfare

“There’s also a bit of swings and roundabouts — I think Brisbane accept they got a pretty good deal and maybe somewhere along the way that will come back to us.”

And the Cats coach said top draft pick Nakia Cockatoo was already pushing his case to play in Round 1 next year.

“There are 40 guys on our list who are a chance to play in Round 1 and Nakia has certainly shown in the first part of pre-season that that’s a possibility for him.”