A number Geelong's young stars could be set to lose patience with the club after their embarrassing 83-point loss to Melbourne in the preliminary final.
Geelong have opted over the years to play in the free agency market and trade in ready-made senior players to continue to contend. This at times has come at the expense of the development of younger players.
Just last year the Cats brought in Shaun Higgins, Isaac Smith and Jeremy Cameron. All three featured in last nights eye-opening loss. They also parted way with four top 30 picks in the draft.
Herald Sun journalist, Jon Ralph said that as many as four of Geelong's young stars could be set for pastures new in order to get their opportunity.
โJordan Clark (is) keen to head home for a lack of opportunities back to Perth, likely Fremantle," Ralph said.
"Quinton Narkle would consider offers elsewhere, he was only an emergency tonight.
โCharlie Constable just desperate to play elsewhere, heโs too good for VFL. And swingman Nathan Krueger is being courted by Collingwood again.
โThey clearly are going to compete in some way next year, but itโs almost impossible to make the case that they will be better.โ
Constable has been rumoured to be looking for the exit door for some time with opportunities coming very few and far between for him.
Midfielder
Disposals
Tackles
Clearances
SEN'sย Sam Edmund said that Constable is still set on a trade out of Geelong with his contract ending this season.
โHeโs tearing up the VFL. He tried to orchestrate a trade last year with a year to run on his contract but no suitable offers emerged so he stayed.
โIf an offer does come from a rival club, heโs out of there. He will take it and heโs there to be taken from a rival clubโs point of view."
Narkle and Clark have been in and out of the side throughout 2021 with Clark playing eight games and Narkle limited to just 13 games.
Chris Scott acknowledged after the loss to Melbourne that some of the younger player may seek exits but claimed it was a price to pay for success.
โItโs the price you pay playing at a successful club as a young player," Scott said.
โThere is a different alternative: play a little bit more and finish in the bottom four.
โIโm not going to say this is definitively our strategy, but I think itโs (giving youngsters extended time in the VFL) very underrated.
โEspecially if you actually do use history as a guide, the dominant Geelong teams through the end of the first decade of this century played a lot of VFL footy.
โThereโs a very strong argument to say that that is a good grounding to play your best football in your early 20s.
โEvery case is a little bit different. Iโd probably prefer to be in a little bit better headspace to address that more coherently than I am at the moment.โ
