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A gun Geelong forward has urged his club’s recruiting team to remain aggressive in its pursuit of talent amid reports the Cats are courting a star rival midfielder.

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Seven reporter Mitch Cleary on Monday revealed contested ball-winner Matt Rowell was in Geelong’s sights, with the 23-year-old set to come out of contract in Carrara this year.

Cleary reported Cats coach Chris Scott and football boss Andrew Mackie met with Rowell and his manager, Tom Petroro, at ‘a private apartment in Melbourne’s bayside’.

It comes after the Cats lured Bailey Smith from the Western Bulldogs in the off-season and were rumoured to have also been courting Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver.

And while it is extremely early in the year for trade speculation, Geelong’s desire to consistently add established talent is clear, and a gun small forward wouldn’t have it any other way.

“He’s one of the best players in the league, so it’s pretty straightforward that our recruiting team are doing a great job. That’s what everyone gets cut up about; that we’re targeting great players, and we’ve targeted them in the past and ended up getting them,” Gryan Miers told reporters on Wednesday.

“They (the recruiting team) will keep doing that job and that is their job to do; to target the best. I actually don’t know if we’re going for him (Rowell), but if we are, then good luck to him, good luck to us that if it happens.

“It’ll be exciting, and I hope we keep going after those big names.”

Hypothetically adding the grunt of Rowell, who led the competition for tackles per game last season and ranked third for contested possessions per game, to an outside-running duo of Smith and Max Holmes smells like a formula for success.

Miers, clearly an ardent follower of American football, compared Geelong’s no-holds-barred recruiting style to that of the Super Bowl-bound Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles, who scooped up star running back Saquon Barkley in free agency two years after trading for three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver AJ Brown, will face off with the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL decider for the second time in three years.

“Definitely (like that approach). Philadelphia did the same thing; they target the big names, and now they’re going to the Super Bowl,” Miers continued.

“You don’t want to sit on your heels and let others take the best players in the league. If we fail at getting these players, so be it, but we’ve got Jeremy Cameron and won a premiership with him, (and) we’ve had great success over the other players we’ve got, (like) ‘Danger’ (Patrick Dangerfield from Adelaide) 10 years ago.

“You’ve got to keep doing it, and the only way to do it is keep getting better players. And that makes the players like me (already) at the team see those guys come in and go ‘I don’t want those guys to steal my spot, so I’m trying to get a bit better as well’. So, it all works with each other.”