PLAYERS like debutant Michael Luxford and the ever-improving Mark Blicavs are making Geelong a team of diverse talents that will challenge most opponents in coming years, according to coach Chris Scott.

Speaking after the Cats demolished Essendon by 69 points, restricting the Bombers to their lowest ever half-time score against Geelong, Scott said the future looked bright.

With former basketballer Luxford making his debut less than two years after playing his first game of AFL and ex-steeplechaser Blicavs holding down the ruck, the Cats fielded eight players with 50 games or less experience.

Scott said those players were, in many cases, not only making the team better now but would soon make them imposing as the transition between eras gathers pace.

"What we do have is a bit of variety in our game which we think over the course of a couple of seasons is going to make us harder to read. Those young guys bring a skill set that we haven't necessarily had over the last couple of years," Scott said after the win over the Dons.

"More than making us inexperienced and inconsistent, we think they're adding to our side and providing some things we didn't think we had six months ago."

Scott joked that the only game of football Luxford had played before joining Geelong was with his school's house team.

He said Luxford was a long way off matching the physical capabilities of an elite AFL player when he arrived at the club.

Veteran Jimmy Bartel told K-Rock prior to the game that Luxford had a full body cramp during his first training session, such was the increase in intensity from what he was used to.

"He wasn't necessarily a talented athlete. In a basketball sense he was, but he was a poor runner who is now in the top half-dozen runners at our club, which is remarkable," Scott said. 

With an even win-loss ratio Scott said Geelong deserved to be ranked middle of the road after 10 rounds but he continued to push the fact that at their best the Cats could match it with the League's top teams.

He conceded next Friday night's game against Port Adelaide was a critical match and remained hopeful the team would regain ruckman Rhys Stanley after he was a late withdrawal with a quad injury.

Mitch Clark remains unlikely while Shane Kersten could also be unavailable after being subbed off at half-time with a hamstring strain against Essendon.

Scott said while it was not ideal to have so many talls on the sidelines, the team had become used to being in the situation of having to use Blicavs and Josh Walker in the ruck. 

"We've got about 25 ruckmen on our list and we're back to Walker and Blicavs again," Scott said.

"We played the last two finals series with those two. We think that they can be important players for us, but our preference is not to play them in the ruck but out of necessity tonight they did it and did it pretty well."