GEELONG will move heaven and earth to ensure Brownlow Medallist Jimmy Bartel isn't seduced by a lucrative offer from new franchise Team GWS.

The Cats are still stung by Gary Ablett's defection to Gold Coast and could be hit again in 12 months' time with Bartel reported to be on the radar of the league's cashed-up 18th team.

However, the Cats are confident they will have less trouble keeping Bartel despite him coming out of contract at the end of 2011.

"We certainly don't want to lose him and we're doing our very best to keep him and we'll be very surprised if we don't keep him," outgoing president Frank Costa said on Melbourne radio station SEN on Thursday.

"It's not a surprise to us because we're aware all our good players are going to be targeted whether it's [from] a change in the number of clubs that are in the AFL now - those two clubs have to be competitive from day one.

"The way they can do that is to take some star players from other clubs.

"We've had the experience with Gary Ablett, which was very disappointing for us, so we weren't surprised Bartel was being targeted."

The 26-year-old has played 181 games for the Cats and has been one of their most consistent performers since winning the 2007 Brownlow Medal.

Chief executive Brian Cook said the process of signing the dual premiership player to a new deal would ramp up next year.

"It's probably our highest priority in relation to our contracts, to keep Jimmy," Cook said in the Geelong Advertiser on Thursday.

"Have we learned from the Gary Ablett experience? I don't think we could have done any more with Gary Ablett. We tried to stitch up Gary Ablett 18 months ago and we'll be doing the same with Jimmy Bartel.

"What we have learned from the Gary Ablett experience is that we didn't have enough money [to meet his contract demands]."