Hayden Young hopped off the team bus at the SCG last week, and everything hit him.
For the next few minutes – before Fremantle’s dramatic preliminary final resurrection against Sydney – tears welled in Young’s eyes as a whirlwind of thoughts stirred emotions unlike anything he had experienced before a game.
He thought of his journey from Somerville and the Dandenong Stingrays to being a top-10 draft pick then establishing himself in the AFL despite missing 50 games to injury. Most of all, Young spent that time soaking in the fact he was about to realise a childhood dream of playing for a grand final spot.
“I took five minutes to reflect and feel grateful. I think that’s why, in the game, when the momentum was against us … I had this mindset of, ‘How good is this? What an opportunity’,” Young told this masthead.
“Although they [Sydney] got out to a decent lead, the game wasn’t done, and we saw an opportunity to go and play another quarter-and-a-half. It certainly helped me.”
Young was brilliant, and widely regarded as the best and most influential player afield as the Dockers booked their second AFL grand final, first in 13 years, and another shot at what would be a history-making first flag.
His outrageous set-shot goal from barely inside the boundary line after the three-quarter-time siren slashed the Swans’ lead to 21 points, which ended up being the largest deficit Fremantle erased from that stage in a match.
In less than 70 per cent game time – more on that later – Young racked up 28 disposals, seven tackles, five inside-50s, four clearances and seven score involvements.
When some of Young’s teammates were struggling, he was landing kicks on a dime off his precise left boot, busting tackles to try and create opportunities and generally doing his utmost to turn the tide. Then, when they came along for the ride, he was even better.
Young’s goal might even go down in club folklore if the Dockers win Saturday’s grand final over the Brisbane Lions, who are hunting a premiership three-peat.
“In the moment, you don’t realise [the significance],” Young said.
“If we don’t go on to have the last quarter that we had, no one really talks about the goal … but I’m so proud of being a part of that last quarter and the fightback that we showed. It was some of the best footy I’ve played and been a part of as a team.”
Young is the AFL’s ultimate quality-over-quantity footballer.
His 67 per cent game time is the ninth-lowest average of any midfielder this season, and his career figure is barely higher at 71 per cent, while his average bench stint of 7:22 is the second-longest among on-ballers.
Fremantle’s medical staff have carefully devised a plan to keep Young fit and firing, and coach Justin Longmuir put it perfectly after last Friday night’s triumph: “Seventy-five per cent of Hayden Young is way better than zero per cent.”
The 25-year-old, who concedes he was always more of a power than endurance athlete, suffered through the toughest two seasons of his career before the heroics and highs of the past week.
Young missed nine games this year and 14 in 2025 across a stop-start period of hamstring, groin and concussion setbacks that forced him to transform his mindset off the field.
He no longer races to his mobile phone post-match to log onto the AFL app and look at his statistics, and you can guarantee he won’t read this story because he does his best to avoid what is written and said about him.
“I’ve done a lot of work in the last two years on finding balance in my life and not being so attached to Hayden Young, the footballer, and [instead] trying to work on Hayden Young, the human being,” he said.
“I feel like it’s led me to where I am this week, and I’m in a much better spot than what I would have been two years ago had I not faced the challenges that I’ve faced. Win or lose this weekend, I’m really proud of the person I am today and what I’ve gone through to get to where I am.
“Obviously, I want to win badly [on Saturday], but if I don’t, it’s not the end of the world.”
Young does not pretend to understand what diehard Dockers fans have gone through waiting 31 years for a premiership that is still no certainty of coming this weekend.
He plans to do everything possible to bring joy to the club’s starved fan base, but they won’t be his sole source of inspiration in the MCG stands.
“A lot of my family were there watching the prelim, and it was special to see them in the stands and the joy that me playing football brings to their lives,” Young said.
“That’s one thing that I’m super proud of when I reflect on my career, so I’m looking forward to this weekend and sharing it with family.”
Get around our AFL finals coverage
From our partners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
