Here's the Draft Central write-up on Matt Ling:
Matthew Ling - Aussie Rules Draft Central
I think it's worth reading to remind ourselves why he was taken at pick 14. He's the only player in the top 34 picks in the 2017 draft to have not yet played an AFL game. So his time is due.
Picks 15-17 went for Zac Bailey, Ed Richards (my personal choice) and Jack Higgins. All are doing quite well. It was reported that Longmire visited Higgins at home the night before the draft. The point of this is not to illustrate that we made a mistake, but rather that we were well aware of some very good players with similar characteristics, but chose Ling ahead of them all. Certainly KB had an in depth knowledge of all these players. We know that he's a very sharp assessor of talent.
We don't know for sure, but he should be able to get back on track for an AFL career if he can overcome his injuries. Except for his turf toe injury in 2018, the others have not been reported on much, but it seems to have limited his training and playing time. The talent is there, and if he's fit to play, he's capable of being a very exciting player.
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