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Cameron Ling
Ling pictured after the 2009 AFL Grand Final
Personal information
Full name Cameron Neville Ling
Nickname(s) Lingy
Date of birth (1981-02-27) 27 February 1981 (age 43)
Place of birth Geelong, Victoria
Original team(s) Geelong Falcons/St Joseph's
Draft 38th overall, 1999
Geelong
Height 189 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight 92 kg (203 lb)
Position(s) Midfielder
Playing career
Years Club Games (Goals)
2000–2011 Geelong 246 (139)
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Cameron Ling (born 27 February 1981) is a former Australian rules footballer and three-time premiership player who played 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 also a premiership-winning captain at the club in 2011.

He is now a commentator on AFL football for the Seven Network and a special comments commentator on AFL football for ABC Radio Grandstand. He is also a member of the selection panel for the AFL All-Australian team and the AFL Rising Star Award.[1]

Football career

[edit]

Ling played junior football for the Geelong Falcons[2] as a full-forward and was drafted by his hometown club, the Geelong Football Club.

In 2007, his on-field performances were rewarded with selection in the 2007 All-Australian team on the interchange. He also played a solid role in their 2007 premiership later that year in which Geelong broke a 44-year premiership drought and won by a record-breaking 119 points against Port Adelaide, a record that stands to this day.[3]

Ling served as vice-captain in their 2009 season, including the 2009 premiership in which he was considered among Geelong's best players.

On 20 January 2010, Cameron Ling was announced as the team's new captain, taking over from the recently retired Tom Harley. He captained the Cats in the 2010 AFL season and the 2011 AFL season. In 2011, he captained Geelong to their third premiership in 5 years, against Collingwood. He kicked the final goal of the match after a turnover from Héritier Lumumba.

Shortly after guiding the Cats to their 9th premiership win in their history, Cameron Ling announced his retirement on 5 October 2011.[4] Being able to nullify the opposition's best midfielder whilst managing to influence matches has made Cameron Ling regarded as one of the best-ever taggers to play AFL.[5] He was succeeded as captain by Joel Selwood.

Post-playing days

[edit]
Ling interviewing Neale Daniher in June 2017

In November 2011, Ling announced he would join Channel 7 in a commentary role on one of their Saturday night games; he also has commentated on Friday night matches. At the beginning of the 2012 Associated Public Schools of Victoria football season, Ling took up the position of Director of Football at Geelong Grammar School.

On 9 October 2013, Ling was appointed to work one day per week during the 2014 season on the development of the North Melbourne leadership group.[6]

Ling is an Australian Apprenticeships Ambassador for the Australian Government.[7]

Outside of the AFL, he co-hosts Tom, Lingy & Loggy on K Rock 95.5.[8]

"Mayor" of Geelong

[edit]

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 temporarily step down for Ling. 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 2007, Ling acknowledged his title as mayor; however, despite the contention it raised, it was never formalised and was merely a tongue-in-cheek publicity stunt.

Personal life

[edit]

In December 2012, Ling's partner Nicole Dodds gave birth to their first child.

In 2020 he was named in the St Joseph’s College team of champions, recognising the best VFL/AFL players to have attended the school.[9]

Statistics

[edit]
[10]
Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals 
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds 
  H  
 Handballs 
  M  
 Marks
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game)
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
2000 Geelong 45 10 3 1 45 26 71 25 7 0.3 0.1 4.5 2.6 7.1 2.5 0.7
2001 Geelong 45 13 8 3 104 61 165 43 30 0.6 0.2 8.0 4.7 12.7 3.3 2.3
2002 Geelong 45 21 11 8 248 167 415 85 49 0.5 0.4 11.8 8.0 19.8 4.0 2.3
2003 Geelong 45 21 4 5 280 242 522 112 53 0.2 0.2 13.3 11.5 24.9 5.3 2.5
2004 Geelong 45 25 16 5 357 235 592 168 72 0.6 0.2 14.3 9.4 23.7 6.7 2.9
2005 Geelong 45 23 11 9 307 260 567 139 50 0.5 0.4 13.4 11.3 24.6 6.0 2.2
2006 Geelong 45 22 10 3 248 255 503 131 61 0.4 0.1 11.3 11.6 22.9 6.0 2.8
2007 Geelong 45 24 28 6 215 261 476 107 69 1.2 0.2 9.0 10.9 19.8 4.5 2.9
2008 Geelong 45 23 15 5 237 309 546 106 79 0.6 0.2 10.3 13.4 23.7 4.6 3.4
2009 Geelong 45 22 7 7 235 265 500 100 106 0.3 0.3 10.7 12.0 22.7 4.6 4.8
2010 Geelong 45 21 9 12 211 253 464 76 112 0.4 0.6 10.0 12.0 22.1 3.6 5.3
2011 Geelong 45 21 17 9 265 192 457 74 92 0.8 0.4 12.6 9.1 21.8 3.5 4.4
Career 246 139 73 2752 2526 5278 1166 780 0.6 0.3 11.2 10.3 21.5 4.7 3.2

Honours and achievements

[edit]
Brownlow Medal votes
Season Votes
2000 0
2001 2
2002 12
2003 12
2004 12
2005 13
2006 6
2007 1
2008 9
2009 2
2010 2
2011 0
Total 71

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Steven, Riewoldt up for All Australian", AFL website, 3 September 2013. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
  2. ^ "Cameron Ling Player Profile bio". Archived from the original on 6 August 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
  3. ^ "AFL Tables - Geelong v Port Adelaide - Sat, 29-Sep-2007 2:30 PM - Match Stats". afltables.com. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  4. ^ Top Cat bows out as Ling calls time – smh.com.au. Published 5 October 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  5. ^ "'Most feared player in the league': AFL great names his top 5 taggers ever". Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  6. ^ "North plots path to redemption", The Australian, 12 October 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  7. ^ "Tackling his next challenge: Cameron Ling | Australian Apprenticeships". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
  8. ^ Daily, K. rock's Fresh (1 January 2017). "Tom, Lingy & Loggy". K rock 95.5. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  9. ^ "Four skippers, eight All-Australians, one Brownlow ... one school". www.afl.com.au. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  10. ^ "AFL Tables - Cameron Ling - Stats - Statistics".
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