The Cats play for a place in the grand final - their first since 1995 and the first for all but a handful of players - in Saturday night's preliminary final against the all-conquering Brisbane Lions at the MCG.
He sees the disappointment in many former players who have returned to the club in another capacity in order to achieve the ultimate - assistant coach Ken Hinkley, Steve Hocking, runner Andrew Bews among others - and doesn't want to be in that position at the end of his career.
"They are stressing to us, 'just because we're young and we're getting playing to play in a pretty important finals series, it doesn't mean it's going to happen every year'," Ling said on Tuesday.
"They've said basically, 'don't wait until you're career's over and you've got to come back as a coach or a runner or something like in order to get to the premiership, just take the opportunity now'. They've been fantastic like that," he added.
Ling says the players have also heeded the words of Collingwood premiership captain Tony Shaw, who spoke to the players last month.
"He said he played in a grand final when he was about 19 or 20 and they lost and it obviously took until 1990 for him to get his premiership," Ling recalled on Tuesday.
"He said just make sure when we've got an opportunity, really do everything you can to take it so that's what the boys are doing. I think most of the boys realise it."
