Essendon's Mark McVeigh would love to take Greg Inglis into battle against an Israel Folau-led Greater Western Sydney in 2012 - if he's not based in Blacktown himself, that is.

Bombers chief executive Ian Robson first floated the idea in the wake of the Melbourne Storm salary cap fiasco, and though he has since backed off from any formal suggestion he was chasing Inglis, McVeigh argued the 23-year-old was better suited to Australian rules football than Folau.

"If you look at Israel Folau and Greg Inglis you'd probably think Greg's more suited in terms of the way he moves and his skills, I've seen him kick the ball a fair bit," McVeigh said on Wednesday.

"You'd welcome any player, we've got two young Irish guys who have to learn the game as well, so you embrace any player who comes to your club and you do your best to help them - that would be great actually (to get Inglis)."

While noting that Inglis was under contract and that Essendon were not making a formal move, Robson said he was a believer in code switching.

"All this is obviously off the back of Karmichael (Hunt joining Gold Coast) and off the back now of Israel and still some enduring speculation about what might happen with the Melbourne Storm playing group," he said.

"People are going to look with great intent as to what happens there, I think Greg's an outstanding athlete, I went and saw him play for Australia the other week, he's a colossus.

"If ever there was an opportunity somewhere down the track to explore that, we think we're pretty brave and bold with our recruiting, we've got some kids from Papua New Guinea here, we've got some kids from Ireland here and a kid from another code wouldn't frighten us."

McVeigh's own future is up for some debate, as he is out of contract at season's end while also being very close to GWS coach Kevin Sheedy via their time together at Essendon.

"What would I be then, 30, 31?" McVeigh pondered when asked if he would consider moving back to his childhood home as a senior figure.

"I speak to Sheeds regularly, we've kept in contact, he was a great mentor of mine and I've played under him for 11 years, so there's a good bond and relationship there.

'I'm out of contract at the end of the year with Essendon and we'll see what happens from there, but at the moment I've got to play good footy to keep up with our team."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP