Right at home: Lings light up hit-out in blue and green
HEADS turned as former AFL player Matthew Ling made a strong first impression in a hitout on return to his junior club St Mary’s on Friday.
Playing in a scratch match mostly featuring the youth in the St Mary’s squad against Werribee, Ling was immediately back at home in blue and green, dominating out of the middle.
Drafted to Sydney from Geelong as the 14th overall pick in the 2017 AFL draft, he played only four matches for the Swans as injuries took their toll.
He has returned home and is part of Geelong’s VFL program and will be aligned to St Mary’s locally.
Saints co-coach Travis Robertson said the smooth leftfooter “showed some traits I was probably unaware of” against Werribee.
“His ball use was pretty special, his ability and hardness around stoppages was probably something I hadn’t seen before (from him),” Robertson said.
“He comes from a terrific family who are well invested in the footy club, so we have seen a bit of him of late. But for him on Friday night, we thought he might just want to play some footy given he has missed out on a lot with injuries.”
Matthew was not the only Ling to impress in the hit-out. His brother Harrison also caught Robertson’s eye.
“Harry had a bit of an interrupted year with a broken leg,” Robertson said. “He looked like he has come on a bit and Harvey Ryan hasn’t played a senior game for us yet and he looked at home as well.”
The Saints have made further additions to the squad that finished on top of the GFL ladder this season, undefeated through 11 matches. Hulking ruckman and former Sydney rookie Kyle Galloway has been joined by Kade Chalcraft, who is also aligned with Geelong’s VFL side.
The Saints will work with delisted North Melbourne youngster Charlie Ham and likely be his locally aligned club once he settles on a VFL team, while premiership player Jesse Travaglini has returned from Queensland.