After abandoning their mantra of building through the draft and bringing in mature-age stars in an effort to land another flag, Tim Watson says that performance of Geelong coach Chris Scott will be under the microscope in 2017.

The Cats have been extremely active in recent years during the trade and free agency periods, attracting ready-made talent to the club, but after a disappointing exit from last year’s finals series, the spotlight will turn on the 2011 premiership coach according to the ex-Essendon star.

“This is going to be the greatest year of challenges for Chris Scott. I reckon we are going to find out this season whether Chris Scott is the great coach that his record suggests,” Watson said.

“They went out and they recruited for now. They went and recruited (Scott) Selwood, (Lachie) Henderson, (Zac) Smith and also (Paddy) Dangerfield – they were topping up with top level talent that was ready to go believing that they were going to be a serious premiership threat.

“(But) they fell down in their last month, particularly their last performance was ordinary.”

Watson said that Scott needs to find a way to get more out of his second-tier midfielders and not leave the majority of the load on the shoulders of his two superstars.

“He’s got to find a way – he’s got two of the best midfielders in the competition, but they are overshadowing (the rest),” he said.

“This is the great challenge for him right now, how he can manipulate that, still get great performances from Dangerfield and Selwood, but to bring the other players along and make them greater than what they appeared to be last year.”

Former Melbourne skipper Garry Lyon said that the losses of Corey Enright and Jimmy Bartel cannot be underestimated and there remain question marks over the Cats back six.

“They’ve lost Enright, who is as influential to them and the way they play as Sam Mitchell was to Hawthorn, so they’ve got to fill the breach in the back half,” Lyon said.

“Its underestimated the hole that they’ll (Enright and Bartel) leave.

“The back half is my concern, they get well protected because of the way they play – they set up really well behind the footy, they don’t get hurt on turnovers as they go nice and patiently.

“Lonergan and Mackie have been unbelievably good, but their best footy is behind them. Whether or not it’s going to stand up for the duration of another year is a legitimate question mark.”

Lyon said that the move of Harry Taylor into attack hasn’t appeared to have worked so far over the pre-season, and that Henderson would be a better option in attack.

“I’m not sure what they are doing with Harry Taylor. If they’ve invested a summer of playing or training him forward, then they’ve got to give it a chance to work, but it doesn’t appear to me to be anywhere close to working,” he said.

“Lachie Henderson to me is a better chance of being a forward than Harry Taylor. From the outside looking in, I’d say they’ve got that wrong and that Henderson is your man to go forward and partner Tom Hawkins.”

What they added over the off-season...

National draft: Ryan Abbott, Timm House, Quinton Narkle, Brandan Parfitt, Esava Ratugolea, Tom Stewart.

Rookies: Jamaine Jones, Sam Simpson, Zach Guthrie, Jack Henry.

Trade: Aaron Black (North Melbourne), Zach Tuohy (Carlton)

What they lost from 2016...

Retired: Jimmy Bartel, Corey Enright.

Delisted: Zac Bates, Mitch Clark, Jock Cornell, Cameron Delaney, Padraig Lucey, Michael Luxford, Tom Read.

Traded: Josh Caddy (Richmond), Billie Smedts (Carlton), Shane Kersten (Fremantle), Nathan Vardy (West Coast).

The first month...

Round 1: Fremantle v. Geelong at Domain Stadium

Round 2: Geelong v. North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium

Round 3: Melbourne v. Geelong at Etihad Stadium

Round 4: Geelong v. Hawthorn at MCG

Predicted headline...

"The big story that needs to be fleshed out is the change in philosophy in their recruiting. For so long the Cats always built from the draft and they built a large period of their success from that. But there was a distinct change about five years ago." – Sam McClure