Cats veteran Tom Lonergan is confident that the club's new-look backline will be able to put the squeeze on opposition teams this season.

The retirement of superstar half-back Corey Enright and the expectation that Harry Taylor will spend more time in the forward line means Lonergan will be joined by a number of new faces in defence.

Recruits Zach Tuohey and Tom Stewart and second-year key defender Ryan Gardner are all pushing to fill the vacancies, and given the changes that occurred last year, moulding the backline into an effective unit shapes as a challenge.

"Tommy Ruggles is still relatively new, Lachie Henderson is only a year in, so we've got a lot of new guys down there," Lonergan said during a press conference at Deakin University.

"But we've got a pretty good backline coach [in Matthew Scarlett] who's moulding us all together, so we'll be right to go."

Although there has been much speculation that Taylor will spend most of this season in the forward line, Lonergan expects him to help out the defenders when needed.

"He's been training a lot as a forward, but he'll be used probably as a utility," he said.

"He's a great player, he's a terrific contested player and he'll obviously help out 'Hawk' at stages during the year.

"But he'll come back at stages as well.