GEELONG CAPTAIN CAMERON LING RETIREMENT CONFIRMED
Ben Jensen 5 October 2011

By Ben Jensen twitter.com/thecattery GEELONG CAPTAIN AND CHAMPION CAMERON LING today announced his retirement from AFL football after 246 games, 3 Premierships, 1 club best and fairest, All Australian selection in 2007, 2 NAB Cups and literally hundreds of friendships formed through footy over 12 seasons in the game. Ling was recruited from the Geelong Falcons with the Cats' final pick in the 1999 draft, as he sat nervously on his Mother's couch in Torquay. He was recruited as a full-forward but made his name in 2002 as a tagger, regularly shutting down the likes of Nathan Buckley. He then stepped his ball-magnet skills up, regularly gathering 20-30 disposals a game. Ling, 30, told the Sunday Footy Show on Sunday morning before deciding his future he'd speak to his teammates and coach Chris Scott, appeared to have made his mind up early on Tuesday as News Limited ran with the story last night. Ling announced the news following today's successful Premiership Parade in Geelong. Fittingly, Ling's final game was a typical gutsy game against one of the AFL's best midfielders in Dane Swan, and he capped it off with the final goal of the match.

"I've been a bit humbled and very pleased with the fact that so many people have said 'Play on, you should play on; you've still got something to offer, you've had a terrific season'. That's nice. It's a hell of a lot better than people saying, 'It's about time, you should have gone a long time ago'", Ling said

"I know I'm one hundred per cent certain that I'm finished and therefore I'm content with everything I've done and it's nice to know I finished on a real positive and a real high, and I supposed finished with being able to contribute something to the footy club. I really seriously made up my mind over the last few days.

"I had an idea of what I was maybe going to do at the end of the season for the last month or so, but I suppose it's the nature of my personality and a lot of our personalities that we're just so focused on the moment and what we're trying to achieve that any of that sort of stuff is pushed to the back of my mind. I wanted to get the job done first.

"It's sort of a combination of both [the physical and mental pressures of playing for another year]; the physical stuff is pretty hard. It's harder to get your body up week in, week out, and that tends to make it hard mentally.

"I've loved this whole year so it's not for a lack of enjoyment or motivation or anything like that. I've really loved this year, enjoyed the year, found it really challenging.

"It's certainly not because I'm hating footy or anything like that. As I said before, I love coming to work every day with these guys and trying to push ourselves to achieve what we want to achieve."

Meanwhile Essendon has poached another Geelong coaching staff member to replace previously poached Brendan McCartney. Matthew Egan has joined the Bombers as an assistant coach. Egan memorably missed the 2007 finals series after suffering a serious ankle injury in the round 21 win over Brisbane at the GABBA. He made All Australian selection that year but never played another game of AFL football. He has been at the club ever since, in an official coaching capacity the past two seasons. GRAND FINAL MATCH REPORT AND PHOTO GALLERY

CAMERON LING WAKES UP WITH THE 2011 PREMIERSHIP CUP THE MORNING AFTER

CAMERON LING AND GIRLFRIEND CELEBRATE THE 2007 FLAG