CATS recruiting boss Stephen Wells says he remains confident the club has the means to secure Lachie Henderson despite giving up its first two picks in this year’s draft for Paddy Dangerfield.

Wells is working through a range of options, including using a pick in next year’s draft, to nut out a trade deal that would bring Henderson across from Carlton.

“We’re really hopeful something can get sorted out there,” Wells told SEN Radio on Tuesday morning.

“Carlton have been very good in their understanding of what we had to do to get Paddy … so I’m confident something will work out, but that might just take a little bit more work.”

Wells and his list management team had a big opening to the trade and free agency period, landing Dangerfield and Scott Selwood on day one.

Dangerfield was a restricted free agent, but the two clubs agreed on a trade after Adelaide indicated that it would exercise its right match the Cats’ offer to the gun midfielder.

“Once the Crows made it clear to us that they were not going to be satisfied with whatever the compensation was through the free agency opportunity, we had to try and get a deal done,” Wells said.

“We owed it to Paddy and his family and our players, and also our supporters, to eliminate any risk of Paddy not joining our club.

“To be able to do a deal with Adelaide in a very professional way, I think both clubs have come out of it okay, albeit not necessarily ideally.

“But we’ve got Paddy coming to our club, which is what his desire was, and the Crows have done a bit better than they would have through free agency compensation.”

The Cats gave up promising midfielder Dean Gore as part of the Dangerfield deal, and Wells said the club parted with the South Australian with a heavy heart.

“Dean was approached, through his manager, by the Crows to consider going home,” Wells said.

“He was very happy here at Geelong and we were happy with how he was going,

“But in the end Dean thought the opportunity for him might be better at Adelaide with us bringing in a couple of midfielders in Paddy and Scott Selwood.

“And I suppose he has read the play … in that he and his manager approached us to be considered as part of that deal for Paddy.”

Selwood joined the Cats, where he will play alongside his brother Joel, under the free agency rules.

Wells confirmed that if the Eagles had matched Geelong’s offer to Selwood, then the 25-year-old midfielder would most likely have remained in Perth.

“It would have been very, very hard for us to do a [trade] deal, I think, given that we had to give up a second-round pick [for Dangerfield],” Wells said.

“So free agency was probably the only way we were going to be able to get Scott.”