EFNL 2022: Former Western Bulldog Lin Jong signs with Mulgrave

Mulgrave has pulled off one of the recruiting coups of the off-season, signing a former AFL Bulldog. Here’s how.

The former Bulldog is back where it all began.

Eastern league Division 2 outfit Mulgrave has revealed Lin Jong will play for the club next season, with the 65-game ex-AFL midfielder crossing from Northern top-tier power, Montmorency.

A former junior of the club’s affiliate Glen Waverley Rovers, Jong played under-19s with Mulgrave before he was selected by the Western Bulldogs with pick No. 9 in the 2012 rookie draft, spending almost a decade in the top-flight before his retirement in 2021.

Lin Jong played 65 games for the Western Bulldogs between 2012 and 2021. Picture: Michael Klein

He took in two flags with the Bulldogs’ VFL side in 2014 and ’16, winning the Norm Goss Medal for best afield in the latter.

Incoming Mulgrave senior coach Matt Richards said Jong had remained close friends with a number of individuals at the club including captain Sam Kassianou and reserves coach Mitch Peddle, spearheading the move.

“Some of his school mates still play at the club, one’s our captain and one’s our twos coach and there’s a couple of other mates as well,” Richards said.

“It was as simple as that, tapping into the fact that he wants to finish off his footy playing with really good mates of his.

“I felt we were always a chance, just tapping into the mateship.

“I don’t know how else you go about recruiting players these days unless you can tap into something like that, so it’s massive for us – we’re just rapt.

“For me coming in as a new coach, the players are our best recruiters.

“It’s got to be about having something more than throwing money at them … that’s our big driving force this year.”

Lin Jong won two flags in the VFL during a decade at the Whitten Oval. Picture: AAP Image/Scott Barbour

Richards said Jong’s signing had created a “real buzz” around the club from the juniors to the seniors, with his addition set to inject experience into an emerging midfield.

“We’ve had a strong midfield anyway but they’re young, we just needed to add some maturity to the group as well, and just guys that are leaders … you can just see there’s a real buzz around the group,” Richards said.

“They’ve (Glen Waverley Rovers) got his jumper hanging on the wall of the change-rooms, so it’s a real homecoming for us.

“His dad posted a couple of photos the other day of him in Mulgrave gear from when he was 17 or 18.”

Jong joins a Mulgrave side which finished eighth of Division 2’s 10 teams this season, with a 7-11 record.

It missed the top five by two-and-a-half games and percentage, with it last featuring in finals in 2014.

Richards said while “we still want to add a couple more pieces to the puzzle” this off-season, snapping the long finals drought was the expectation ahead of 2023.

The club is also set to return to Mulgrave Reserve next season following a multimillion-dollar upgrade of facilities.

“We want to play finals – I think every club has that, it’s been a long drought … we need to get back into our new rooms and our home ground – we’ve had a really tough five years,” Richards said.

“I know Covid’s hit everyone but in particular with no rooms last year for the whole season, it was just hard … we didn’t have a home base. We had resurfacing five years ago as well, so in the last five years, we’ve had one year at home.

“That’s another real positive for the club … everyone’s invested and fingers crossed we can get off to a good start.”