Geelong are facing a period of significant transition and need to somehow find the necessary improvement to compete with Collingwood and Hawthorn.

That’s the assessment of Geelong coach Chris Scott, who says the retirements of four big names leaves the defending premiers in a difficult position to remain dominant in 2012.

Scott says the Cats will send plenty of young faces into battle in Friday night’s AFL pre-season cup round-one matches against Sydney and St Kilda at Etihad Stadium.

Scott said he was blown away by the some of the form shown by the Hawks in last Friday’s pre-season cup opening round.

“We know they’re innovators. They’ve got a very strong coaching group,” Scott said on Tuesday.

“We’ll keep a close eye on them because we’re not arrogant enough to think we know it all.

“If we roll out what we rolled out last year, we’ll get beaten. No one at Geelong kids themselves about that.

“There is a lot of mitigating circumstances that would count against some improvement but we’ve just got to fight and work as hard as we can to make sure we improve somehow.”

Scott said it was logical for various experts and betting agencies to talk up the Hawks and last year’s runners-up Collingwood as the heavyweights of the 2012 competition.

“I don’t have a problem with it. I didn’t have a problem with it last year,” he said.

“We’re about to take (Cameron) Ling, (Cam) Mooney, (Darren) Milburn and (Brad) Ottens out of our side.

“And I stand up here saying we have to improve. That makes it incredibly hard.”

Scott said the Hawks were exceptional in 2011.

“I can’t remember a side losing four games for the home-and-away season and not finishing top two,” he said.

“They were four points away from the grand final. They’ve got a couple of the best players in the competition.

“It all makes sense.

“Collingwood haven’t really lost too many important players. They were the best team for virtually all the season last year so that makes sense as well.

“We’re in a period of significant transition. The team is evolving a little bit quicker than it has in the previous five or six years.”

Scott said he’d continue his policy of resting players from the occasional match during the home-and-away season.

The Cats have claimed premierships in 2007, 2009 and 2011 and the lure of back-to-back flags remains alive for second-year coach Scott and his men.

However Scott says he’d be amazed if his players needed extra motivation.

“We’re not making any promises. We’re comfortable with our preparation,” he said.

“We think we’ve put ourselves in a pretty good position to compete.

“But we just don’t know for sure and it was the same last year.”

Scott said he was keen to give opportunities to utility Billie Smedts, 19, and 29-year-old ruck recruit Orren Stephenson on Friday night.