The rugged onballer said the finals focus outweighed the revenge factor against St Kilda, who spanked the Cats in round one after beating them in the Wizard Cup final a fortnight earlier.
But Ling admitted the 61-point Telstra Dome hiding is certainly not forgotten, leading into the biggest match of his 82-game career.
"We definitely want to get them back for round one, it wasn't the best game of footy we've ever played,'' Ling said yesterday.
"A win is very important because it would basically guarantee a finals spot and maybe a chance to make the top four.
"It's not so much revenge just want to play well and beat a quality side and test ourselves against the best teams in the competition.
"(The top four) is not mentioned a lot, our first hurdle is to win 12 games to guarantee finals and hopefully we can knock that one over as quickly as possible.''
Ling will be shaping up to face firey crumber Brent Guerra for the first time since the Wizard Cup final, when he was on the receiving end of a trademark Guerra hip and shoulder.
The Cat was flattened just seconds after the first bounce when Guerra ran from the edge of the square to deliver the head-high bump, which forced the bloodied Ling off the ground and earnt the Saint a three-match suspension.
But Ling, who believes Guerra's goalkicking exploits (28 goals) have slipped under the radar this year due to his `tough-man' tag, said there's no bad blood between the pair.
"People seem to overlook the fact that he's a genuine goalkicker, he's had a really good season and we can't dwell on the fact that he's a bit of a hardman,'' he said.
"He can be pretty hard and he can take the knocks too, but if you dish a bit out you've got to take the knocks as well.''
Ling is expected to tag Saints' skipper Lenny Hayes as he has in the two previous meetings this year.
