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Former St Kilda star Jack Steven looms as a key piece of Geelong's AFL premiership puzzle in 2020.

Geelong aren't looking for former St Kilda star Jack Steven to replace Tim Kelly.

If Jack can just be Jack then that will suit the Cats just fine as they look to put another preliminary final disappointment behind them and challenge for the AFL flag in 2020.

And after overcoming a minor calf injury, Steven showed enough in a pre-season clash against Essendon to suggest that he's capable of adding his best footy to the mix at his new club.

"The great thing about Jack Steven is that he leaves nothing in reserve," Geelong football boss Simon Lloyd told AAP.

"Every session he does it absolutely everything that he's got ... he's highly driven.

"He really does have a strong influence out on the training track.

"As much as anything now it's just about Jack getting used to the way that we play, our structures and working closely with our midfield group and half-forwards.

"He's really been embraced by the group."

Kelly played a huge role in propelling Geelong to last year's minor premiership, so it's fair enough that questions are asked about the effect his loss will have after he got his wish for a go-home trade to West Coast.

But the Cats are widely expected to be contenders once again.

Their core of star veterans that includes skipper Joel Selwood, Patrick Dangerfield, Tom Hawkins and Gary Ablett remains.

The likes of Mitch Duncan, Mark Blicavs, Tom Stewart, Zach Tuohy and Luke Dahlhaus are all at or near the top of their games.

But it's the younger group beneath those hardened veterans that are expected to keep the Cats in the flag hunt.

"Esava Ratugolea mentioned it right at the start of pre-season; it's really up to that younger group to have a significant influence on where this team is going," Lloyd said.

"We've seen significant physical improvement in Esava and others like Quinton Narkle, Charlie Constable, Mark O'Connor, Brandan Parfitt, Lachie Fogarty, Tom Atkins, Gryan Miers, Jordan Clark and Jack Henry.

"There's actually a large core of players there that will be playing football together for a long period of time."

Ratugolea shapes as a key piece of the Cats' puzzle.

The versatile youngster is part of a big man brigade that is still finding its most potent form.

Will he spend most of his time up forward with Hawkins and former Crow Josh Jenkins or is he best used in the ruck where Rhys Stanley and Darcy Fort are in the mix following Zac Smith's move to Gold Coast?

"We need to see how that works over a period of time," Lloyd said.

"Esava at different times will be more exposed in the ruck, he's an important player to our structure."

All the premiership pieces are there, but perhaps the biggest question mark over the Cats is their finals record.

Since they claimed the 2011 flag in Chris Scott's first season, they've gone 4-11 in finals.

That includes four losing preliminary finals, the last one at the hands of eventual 2019 premiers Richmond after they led by 21 points at halftime.

"What did we learn from that?" Lloyd mused.

"It was a challenge.

"Richmond are obviously a champion team but we've looked at things that we could've adjusted in the third and fourth quarters.

"For our players who might be in a similar situation down the track, hopefully they'll be better for it having experienced that.

"We'll be better for it as a group having taken some lessons from that "