Scott suggested that the competition would tighten this year — that there would be teams that top sides once routinely beat that would prove difficult — and said the gap between third and the fifth and sixth sides had also closed in "very recent" times.

In predicting the pattern of 2015, Scott said that the game was likely to focus on attack and scoring, rather than the already well-developed defensive systems – echoing the comments of his Hawthorn counterpart Alastair Clarkson and Gold Coast's Rodney Eade.

Scott concurred with the widespread view that the grand finalists Hawthorn and Sydney and beaten preliminary finalist Port were marginally ahead of the remaining teams.

"I think that's probably right. I wouldn't mount an argument — an intelligent argument — against that. But I could mount a pretty good argument for four or five teams that are nipping at their heels."

Scott said a case could be mounted "for about 14 of them [clubs] if things go well", adding, "no, it makes perfect sense to rate those [three] teams a little bit ahead of the others".

The Geelong coach, entering his fifth year at the helm of the Cats, said the competition was difficult to judge: "There'll be two or three teams that surprise and two or three teams that disappoint and even the ones that disappoint probably suffer through the media experts overrating them – or bad luck.

"We still think we're in a position where we can maintain our aim of contending each year, while still preparing for the future. I know we've said that a lot the last four years in particular but I don't see — there may come a point in time where that changes for us — but it's not right at the moment."

Asked if the Cats — who lost both finals last year — had actually been a real contender last year, Scott said: "If you want to look at the really objective numbers, we finished equal on top of the ladder on points albeit a fair way behind on percentage. This competition, these days, in my view, is about giving yourself a chance. History shows .. that if you finish top four, you're a chance. If you finish outside, it's a little bit difficult for you.

"Very recent history is that the gap between third, fourth, fifth, sixth has tightened."

Scott also said: 

• That the Cats had received less compensation for Allen Christensen from Brisbane than the midfielder was worth. "Put it this way, we rated him a lot higher than we received for him in compensation."
• That rival clubs' criticism of the Cats for their open pursuit of Travis Boak was hypocritical, but publicity surrounding the Boak chase had not influenced their wish to avoid commenting on another locally reared free agent, Patrick Dangerfield.
• "I think the criticism at the time was a little shortsighted and if you really wanted to dive a  bit deeper into that one, the most misguided were those that were criticising from the outside when they were doing the same thing. They were just less honest about it ... no it hasn't influenced our decision [of not commenting on Dangerfield]."
• That the Cats wanted to protect the "legacies" of their veteran greats, "but not at the expense of the club". They have eight of their nine players aged 30 or over coming out of contract, with only Tom Lonergan contracted for 2016.
• That the Cats, who had recruited former Saint Rhys Stanley and ex-Demon Mitch Clark and have Hamish McIntosh and Dawson Simpson, had not yet settled on a number one ruckman for this season, though they intend to use Stanley mainly in the ruck and Clark as a forward/ruck.

In predicting what would unfold this year, Scott said: "The week-to-week challenge will be finding a way to beat teams who previously the top teams would beat comfortably and that's going to add pressure as the season evolves ... every game out of Melbourne's going to be tough.

"On field, I think the offensive system has lagged the defensive system for a few years and that's starting to turn and I think that will keep going and I think it's true. I even I heard Rodney Eade quoted the other day as saying 'if you can't score, you can't win' and ... I suspect all sides are striving for balance."

Scott said the Cats wanted to find "a couple extra goals [per game] ... as long as we won't give up two goals to get them."