Garry Lyon is unsure whether Geelong’s next crop of young players is good enough to keep them in the finals mix.
The Cats were beaten comprehensively by Melbourne in Friday’s Elimination Final by 29 points and have stocked up with older players in recent years.
“They’ve got big questions to answer. They had three players under 23 that played on the weekend Mark O’Connor, Jack Henry and Brandon Parfit,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast.
“Melbourne had Clayton Oliver, Angus Brayshaw, James Harmes, Christian Salem, Oscar McDonald, Bayley Fritsch, Charlie Spargo, Sam Weideman, Alex Neal-Bullen and Christian Petracca.
“So the question from a Geelong point of view is do they have enough young talent coming through.
“Their recruiting man there (Stephen Wells) is as good as anyone they’ve had, they are going to have to take stock now for sure.
“Esava Ratugolea’s one that didn’t play as a young kid, but it’s the Cory Gregson and the Lincoln McCarthy’s and is Parfitt good enough, is Quinton Narkle going to be good enough and those kids, are they going to be good enough to help them regenerate.”
Lyon however backed Geelong’s decision to target senior players like Gary Ablett.
“They’ve gone the right path (with their recruiting), they just haven’t won a premiership with them, so if you’re going to only judge them by premierships, then yes. They finished second on the ladder last year,” he said.
“They’ve put themselves in a position to contend, but they’ve failed in the finals.”