Cameron Ling

Cameron Ling
Personal information
Full name	Cameron Ling
Date of birth	27 February 1981 (1981-02-27)
Place of birth	Geelong, Victoria
Original team	Geelong Falcons
Draft	38th overall, 1999 Geelong
Height/Weight	189 cm / 94 kg
Position(s)	Midfield
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
2000–2011	Geelong	246 (139)
1 Playing statistics to end of 2011 season .

Cameron Ling (born 27 February 1981) is a former Australian rules footballer for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A tagger at 1.89 metres (6 ft 2 in) and 94 kilograms (207 lb), Ling was a premiership-winning captain at the club. He is now an AFL commentator for the Seven Network.

Career

Renowned as the best tagger in the league, Ling is noted for his red hair and regularly makes appearances on television shows such as The Footy Show and Before the Game where he was nicknamed Fanta Pants. He is also known by other nicknames such as spotfire, ranga and blood nut. His charisma in the media has earned him his own show on Geelong station K-Rock 95.5FM. He hosts it each Wednesday night with friend and ex-Cats player 'Freshy' Tim Callan (now at the Western Bulldogs).

Ling played junior football for the Geelong Falcons as a full-forward and was drafted by his hometown club, the Geelong Football Club. In one of his earliest matches, he missed an absolute "howler", failing to score from a set shot inside the goal square.

Throughout the 2007 season he has been praised for his work as a defensive midfielder, claiming the scalps of numerous opponents including Daniel Kerr, Peter Bell, Brent Harvey and Nick Dal Santo and was rewarded for his performances with selection in the All-Australian team on the interchange.

On 20 January 2010, Cameron Ling was announced as the team's new captain, taking over from the recently retired Tom Harley.

Cameron Ling announced his retirement on 5th October, 2011.

Post Football

In November 2011, Ling announced he would join Channel 7 in a commentary role on one of their new Saturday games.

"Mayor" of Geelong

In what started as a joke, following the hype of the Cats drought-breaking premiership, Cameron Ling was touted as the 'mayor of Geelong', a humorous reference to the way he is idolised by Geelong people.

On Wednesday 3 October 2007 though, Geelong's then Mayor, councillor Bruce Harwood, agreed that he'd be happy to step down for Cameron. Ling's interest in politics and his intelligence is widely known, while it's been reported that he took a significant interest in local council and leadership during his days at St. Joseph's College, Geelong.

During the Premiership celebratory parade through Geelong's streets on 3 October, Ling acknowledged his title as mayor, however despite the contention it raised, was never formalised and thus more of a publicity stunt. It was an incident that may well foreshadow his pursuits after football.

Statistics

Statistics are correct to end of AFL career.

Playing information			Totals								Averages (per game)

Season	Team	#	Games	D	K	H	M	T	G	B	D	K	H	M	T	G	B
2000	Geelong	45	10	71	45	26	25	7	3	1	7.1	4.5	2.6	2.5	0.7	0.3	0.1
2001	Geelong	45	13	165	104	61	43	30	8	3	12.7	8.0	4.7	3.3	2.3	0.6	0.2
2002	Geelong	45	21	415	248	167	85	49	11	8	19.8	11.8	8.0	4.0	2.3	0.5	0.4
2003	Geelong	45	21	522	280	242	112	53	4	5	24.9	13.3	11.5	5.3	2.5	0.2	0.2
2004	Geelong	45	25	592	357	235	168	72	16	5	23.7	14.3	9.4	6.7	2.9	0.6	0.2
2005	Geelong	45	23	567	307	260	139	50	11	9	24.6	13.4	11.3	6.0	2.2	0.5	0.4
2006	Geelong	45	22	503	248	255	131	61	10	3	22.9	11.3	11.6	6.0	2.8	0.4	0.1
2007	Geelong	45	24	476	215	261	107	69	28	6	19.8	9.0	10.9	4.5	2.9	1.2	0.2
2008	Geelong	45	23	546	237	309	106	79	15	5	23.7	10.3	13.4	4.6	3.4	0.6	0.2
2009	Geelong	45	22	500	235	265	100	106	7	7	22.7	10.7	12.0	4.6	4.8	0.3	0.3
2010	Geelong	45	21	464	211	253	76	112	9	12	22.1	10.0	12.0	3.6	5.3	0.4	0.6
2011	Geelong	45	21	457	265	192	74	92	17	9	21.8	12.6	9.1	3.5	4.4	0.8	0.4
Career			246	5278	2752	2526	1166	780	139	73	21.5	11.2	10.3	4.7	3.2	0.6	0.3

Honours and achievements

Brownlow Medal votes
Season	Votes
2000	—
2001	2
2002	12
2003	12
2004	12
2005	13
2006	6
2007	1
2008	9
2009	2
2010	2
2011	—
Total	71

Team

• AFL Premiership (Geelong): 2007, 2009, 2011 (captain)
• AFL McClelland Trophy (Geelong): 2007, 2008
• AFL NAB Cup (Geelong): 2006, 2009

Individual

• All-Australian: 2007
• Carji Greeves Medal: 2004
• Australian representative honours in International rules football: 2002
• AFL Rising Star nomination: 2001
• Geelong F.C. Best First Year Reserves Player Award: 2000
• Geelong F.C. Most Improved Player Award: 2001
• Geelong F.C. Most club votes in Brownlow Medal: 2002, 2003, 2005
• Geelong F.C. Community Champion Award: 2003
• Geelong F.C. Most Determined and Most Dedicated Player Award: 2005
• Geelong F.C Coach's Award: 2008
• TAC Cup Team of the Year: 1998
• Vic Country representative honours at the AFL National Under 18 Championships: 1998, 1999
• Australian (Under-17) representative honours in International rules football: 1998

Other achievements

• Captain of Geelong F.C.: 2010—2011
• Vice-captain of Geelong F.C.: 2007—2009
• Deputy vice-captain of Geelong F.C.: 2005—2006
• Captain of Geelong Falcons (TAC Cup): 1998

External links

• Cameron Ling's profile on the Official AFL Website of the Geelong Football Club
• Cameron Ling's statistics from AFL Tables

Sporting positions
Preceded by Tom Harley	Geelong Football Club captain 2010–2011	Incumbent
Awards
Preceded by Matthew Scarlett	Carji Greeves Medal 2004	Succeeded by Joel Corey