An Australia international and New South Wales interstate representative forward, he played his club football mainly in Sydney's NSWRFL Premiership for Parramatta and Eastern Suburbs.
[3] At the end of the 1976 NSWRFL season he was part of a forward pack which included Ray Higgs, Geoff Gerard, Ron Hilditch, Denis Fitzgerald and Ray Price, which lost the Eels' maiden grand final 13–10 to Manly-Warringah.
In 1977 Olling made headlines when he became the first rugby league player to admit to taking anabolic steroids.
At the end of that season Olling was selected to go on the 1978 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France, playing in Test matches against both nations.
He later moved to Brisbane and replaced Darryl van der Velde as coach the Redcliffe Dolphins, spending the 1988 and 1989 seasons in the role.