Cameron Ling: The Commentator

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zb14

All Australian
Aug 16, 2009
816
1,596
AFL Club
Geelong
I'll always love Lingy for his deeds when wearing a Geelong jumper. But he's lost his way as a commentator when matters concern Geelong. I found it extremely amusing he had a crack at Eddie McGuire on the w/end. He can't see it, but he too has caught Eddie's disease. Lingy wears too many hats these days he doesn't know which he's wearing at any given time. I was extremely disappointed to see his media comments re Selwood being frustrated. Selwood has every right to be pissed off, and should be. As should our club. Ling used a private conversation between him and our captain for his media purposes. His role as leadership consultant at our club is a club-only role and one which is remunerated. Matters arising from this role are the private domain of our football club only, not for public consumption. Or for when Ling decides to conveniently wear his geelong cap AND his 3AW one. On top of that, the timing couldn't have been worse. To read of a "frustrated" Selwood in the Heraldsun on the Monday in which the MRP sits was completely inappropriate.

Ling let down Selwood, he let down one of his employers (GFC) and he let down himself. If our club is fair dinkum about going from "Good to Great" (remember that policy?), they should be having a stern chat with Ling too.
 
It took me a few rounds to realise he's actually in the commentary box on friday nights.The way he talks he sounds like he's screaming from the boundary line.

He's become like Harley - a dobber commentator of players from any club
 
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too conflicted
the sooner they are either coaches, commentators, football administrators the better

just like the buffoon asking Mitchell about the knee incident and pulling out quick as
 

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I found with the ex-Geelong players who join the media, they try to be so un-biased against their old team that they overcompensate & just feels like they have it in for them sort of thing. Still like Lingy but would take Mooney doing the boundary-riding everyday of the week he seems awesome.
 
i think a few of us are a bit precious.... just because we became used to the bias of dermott doesn't mean we should expect the same from ex-cats. They are trying to forge a career, don't begrudge them going a little too far the other way in order to ensure they don't get accused of favoritism or bias and not getting a new contract.

i have no issue with lingy, good luck to him. Bear in mind also that he will only be at it for 2 more years at the most before taking a coaching role at the cats as scott's heir apparent.
 
I found with the ex-Geelong players who join the media, they try to be so un-biased against their old team that they overcompensate & just feels like they have it in for them sort of thing. Still like Lingy but would take Mooney doing the boundary-riding everyday of the week he seems awesome.
Couldn't agree more. I reckon Mooney is a fantastic media figure. What I wouldn't give to hear/see him put BT back in his box :p
 

That statement would disqualify the vast majority of the football media immediately. Their loyalty lies solely with their paycheck.

As was said above, Ling will always be admired and respected as a fine Geelong player, and deserving premiership captain. But I have no interest in hearing him commentate. He's become just another Channel 7/AFL mouthpiece.
 
i think a few of us are a bit precious.... just because we became used to the bias of dermott doesn't mean we should expect the same from ex-cats. They are trying to forge a career, don't begrudge them going a little too far the other way in order to ensure they don't get accused of favoritism or bias and not getting a new contract.

i have no issue with lingy, good luck to him. Bear in mind also that he will only be at it for 2 more years at the most before taking a coaching role at the cats as scott's heir apparent.
I can understand your point, rooie, and Lingy is definitely stuck between a rock and hard place, able to please nobody.
What bothers me that it isn't that he goes a 'little too far'- he actually goes a LOT too far. He just never seems to be able to say anything positive about anyone in the hoops. If we are winning, all we hear is about how our opponents can run us down and beat us. If we are losing, it's all about how good our opponents are and how poorly we are playing - which is actually what I don't mind hearing about either team but I would love it if the Cats could get some credit for a good game. Over the past 8 years when we have been winning such a large proportion of our games, the commentators seem to have been able to amuse themselves down with trying to devise ways to beat us. Now we are no longer in such a position of strength, where is the fun in banging on about how the opposition can chase us down when we are having one of our rare wins? What about a small amount of praise for the players who are playing well?

And don't get me started on the free kicks.... Ah bugger it. Too late!! heck!! If I had 5 cents for every Geelong free that Lingy has disagreed with, I'd be a bloody millionaire! Hang on- make that BILLIONAIRE! On the other hand, every free that the opposition gets is given the Lingy rubber stamp and there are so many times that the frees that get missed are pointed out in frustration- even if the opposition is doubling our FF count! :mad:
 
Everyone with a prominent media role and a club role has an inherent conflict of interest. It's unsatisfactory.

Linga's main source of income now and most likely into the future will be as a media commentator so we should expect that he will remove his club cap each time an assessment is called for. He can't afford not to.

Didn't think his comments were overly adverse in any event.
 
That statement would disqualify the vast majority of the football media immediately. Their loyalty lies solely with their paycheck.

As was said above, Ling will always be admired and respected as a fine Geelong player, and deserving premiership captain. But I have no interest in hearing him commentate. He's become just another Channel 7/AFL mouthpiece.
Every person in every occupation is guilty of this. If you take the money - you owe your employer your loyalty for as long as they pay you.

We shouldn't confuse the fan experience with the experience of those who actually work in the industry.
 
Couldn't agree more. I reckon Mooney is a fantastic media figure. What I wouldn't give to hear/see him put BT back in his box :p
Mooney is very good and I've also found myself really enjoying Barry Hall's boundary riding/commentating, surprisingly.

I absolutely love Ling for what he did while wearing the blue and white hoops. As a commentator I find him laborious to listen to. I can't count how many times I have cringed at things he's said.
 

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Everyone with a prominent media role and a club role has an inherent conflict of interest. It's unsatisfactory.

Linga's main source of income now and most likely into the future will be as a media commentator so we should expect that he will remove his club cap each time an assessment is called for. He can't afford not to.

Didn't think his comments were overly adverse in any event.
I think we'd all be very content if all he was doing was removing his Geelong cap. What we can't take is the apparent eagerness to wear the cap of our opponent each week.
 
I can understand your point, rooie, and Lingy is definitely stuck between a rock and hard place, able to please nobody.
What bothers me that it isn't that he goes a 'little too far'- he actually goes a LOT too far. He just never seems to be able to say anything positive about anyone in the hoops. If we are winning, all we hear is about how our opponents can run us down and beat us. If we are losing, it's all about how good our opponents are and how poorly we are playing - which is actually what I don't mind hearing about either team but I would love it if the Cats could get some credit for a good game. Over the past 8 years when we have been winning such a large proportion of our games, the commentators seem to have been able to amuse themselves down with trying to devise ways to beat us. Now we are no longer in such a position of strength, where is the fun in banging on about how the opposition can chase us down when we are having one of our rare wins? What about a small amount of praise for the players who are playing well?

And don't get me started on the free kicks.... Ah bugger it. Too late!! heck!! If I had 5 cents for every Geelong free that Lingy has disagreed with, I'd be a bloody millionaire! Hang on- make that BILLIONAIRE! On the other hand, every free that the opposition gets is given the Lingy rubber stamp and there are so many times that the frees that get missed are pointed out in frustration- even if the opposition is doubling our FF count! :mad:
Ling is completely objective and fair I think the bias lays with you Teriyakicat (not a bad thing but I think you're a bit one eyed.)
 
It took me a few rounds to realise he's actually in the commentary box on friday nights.The way he talks he sounds like he's screaming from the boundary line.

He's become like Harley - a dobber commentator of players from any club
Haha. It always throws me off when the boundary commentator chips in. And it's not lingy.

Don't like him as a commentator. I liked him initially because i thought he gave real good insight. Now he seems to just be tagging along with the pack and being a bit of 'yes' man.

Edit; not to derail the thread but if BT wasn't so ****ing grating to my ears i probably would be a bit forgiving of lingy. Hearing BT just gets me agitated and probably influences what i think of anyone who agrees with him / can sit next to him for a few hours without telling him to just stfu.
 
I love Lingy. Was probably my favourite player of our golden era and IMO was nearly the most valuable player in the comp for a couple of years with the role he played.
However he was way over the top and way out of line on Saturday night. Actually saddened me a bit to hear him joining in with the Selwood/Geelong haters for his own gain.
Even Tim Watson who has no loyalty to Geelong was far more balanced and measured with all of the incidents during the night.
Was preety spineless and dissapointing.
 
He is quite interesting I find. He doesn't offend me nearly as much as Dermie-biased against us and loves the sound of his own voice. BT/Darcy -idiots. Bruce and Dwayne -just too over the top. Huddo -ok. These guys annoy me. Quite enjoy Lingy and Richo.
 
Every person in every occupation is guilty of this. If you take the money - you owe your employer your loyalty for as long as they pay you.

We shouldn't confuse the fan experience with the experience of those who actually work in the industry.

You can still add your comments without being nothing but a shill. Wayne Carey is actually really, really good at this. Every other commentator on every network has had 8 years to state plainly "Joel Selwood doesn't duck". Why was Carey the first to do this?
 
You can still add your comments without being nothing but a shill. Wayne Carey is actually really, really good at this. Every other commentator on every network has had 8 years to state plainly "Joel Selwood doesn't duck". Why was Carey the first to do this?

I think he is excellent - he also said in a recent Collingwood game - when Varcoe was doing alot of desperate stuff - smothers etc - that he never saw that in Varcoes game at Geelong - right on the money there

He also doesnt over commentate which is GREAT - if he hasnt got anything worthwhile to add - he doesnt say it

He has got no apparent conflict of interest ( like 90% have) and doesnt have a personal hatred of a couple of teams ( which also alot of commentators have ) - if he currently thinks a team is good or bad he will tell you that

I think Carey and Watson ( who i also enjoy listening to ) have got the advantage over Ling and Harley - in that they havent got any team mates still playing - which makes Lings job awkward
 
I agree with the consensus (Lingy overcompensates, Watson, Mooney and Carey all very good) here, but we just need to keep in mind that Lingy can't really support Geelong either. If he were to, say, defend Selwood's armlock, then he would automatically be perceived as biased regardless of how objective his opinion might have actually been. That's probably why whenever he does commentate on Geelong, it's usually the negatives or on very, very vague terms.

And BT should definitely have his microphone confiscated. Is there a petition we can sign or something? The next 6 games are all Saturdays and I don't think I can handle it. Maybe it's some ploy to get more people to games - shit commentary.
 
I think we'd all be very content if all he was doing was removing his Geelong cap. What we can't take is the apparent eagerness to wear the cap of our opponent each week.
Must say I'm not across all of Linga's Geelong comments cos I attend most games. Just didn't think the one in question was over the top.
 

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Cameron Ling: The Commentator


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