Fremantle star Hayden Young says Dockers' best as good as anyone else's in race for finals

West Australian

7 days ago

Freshly minted Glendinning-Allan medallist Hayden Young says Fremantle can 'beat anyone' if they stick to their brand.
As the Dockers chase a first finals berth in three Septembers, Young has slotted seamlessly into a midfield with great depth and Nat Fyfe still to squeeze in.
The Dockers are eight-points clear of the ninth-placed Western Bulldogs – with a home clash against Carlton next week followed by a road trip against Port Adelaide, Brisbane at home and the Bulldogs on their home turf to finish.
Young said one eye was on percentage, which will be crucial with Freo's 111.7 the lowest in the eight, but they were more focused on playing four quarters.
'We've been speaking a lot lately about playing 120 minutes of our brand. And when we do that more often we feel like we can beat anyone,' Young told The West Australian.
'That's the challenge going forward, is not look too far ahead and see if we can just put together four quarters of footy every week.
'We beat top of the ladder (Collingwood) last week, so it just proves to us that, you know, when we can play our brand for longer, we can beat anyone. And we keep believing in that and keep working on those few areas about not falling away.'
The Dockers cost themselves priceless percentage by kicking eight consecutive behinds between the fourth minute of the second quarter and the 10th minute of the third term, but kicked 18.18, their most scoring shots in a decade.
They conceded five goals to two in the final term to eventually win the 61st western derby by 49 points.
'Sometimes that happens. We're obviously trying, there's times where we can find a better option,' Young said.
'There's also times where it's the right option. We just mix it, didn't execute it.
'Sometimes that can happen and it just compounds and you sort of feel like, 'Oh, we just can't get a goal' and you almost try harder to kick goals when the reality is you just need to relax and just treat every moment on its merits.
'We were a little bit frustrated with our last quarter, just because they kicked three goals in a row there.
'We want to keep teams to low scores. It doesn't matter who we play, and obviously, today was an opportunity to get some percentage but it wasn't really front of mind.
'But we still don't want to be letting teams keep goals late in quarters or late in games.
'It's disappointing. But, I mean, we can get better.
'We had 40 shots on the goal, that's pretty good. So if we can create 40 opportunities every game.'
After starting last week as the sub but having a huge impact when injected late in the game against Collingwood, Young was given the nod for the starting 22 in the derby.
He kicked three goals and collected 23 disposals, seven clearances, eight score involvements and 555m gained to poll eight of a maximum of nine votes and win the medal ahead of Andrew Brayshaw (six votes) and Murphy Reid (four votes).
His first quarter produced 10 disposals, five clearances and two goals, the first off a free kick for a hold at close range, the second from stoppage.
Young had numerous opponents but no one in particular, spending some time on West Coast tyro Harley Reid.
'At a bounce we sort of treat it as a four on four and we don't really have any match ups,' Young said.
'They had (Brady) Hough coming to Caleb (Serong), so we were aware of that, and stoppages around the ground, Jaeger (O'Meara) was going to Harley, so I suppose I didn't really have a direct match up.
'There were times where Jaeger wasn't in the stoppage, and I matched up quite well against Harley, being a bigger body.'
Young said it was comforting to come out of the centre knowing he had three big forwards – Josh Treacy, Jye Amiss and Patrick Voss – to kick to and a suite of crafty medium and small forwards at their feet.
'They're presenting well, working together, and I thought they were great tonight,' Young said.
'They had a lot of opportunities and they have just got to keep backing themselves in and the goals will come.'
Voss and Amiss kicked three each and Michael Frederick, and Shai Bolton, Isaiah Dudley, Murphy Reid, Sam Switkowski and Luke Jackson singles.
Young said Voss's energy was catching.
'He's been unreal for us this year. Great story where he's had a few setbacks and he's had to work really hard for his opportunity,' Young said.
'I think that's what we all love about him. He's super-grateful, and he does whatever the team needs.
'Last week, he played on Darcy Moore in a defensive role and ended up kicking six goals. So we love what he does for us, and he brings good energy.'
Of his own three goals, Young said: 'I got lucky. I got a free kick and came off the bench for my third one and just happened to find the ball in my hand. So sometimes you just get lucky. But I was happy,' he said.
And it is always good to beat the mob up the road in front of 54,384 mainly purple-clad fans.
'They've had a tough year, but when you come into a derby, you always know it's going to be a good battle,' Young said.
'And that's what you want. You want you want to play in good games, there was a bit of feeling in it and the crowd was involved and was like that for majority of the game today.
'Probably because we weren't kicking straight it felt like they were more in it than what they were.
'But the reality was we were dominating a lot of areas of the ground. We just weren't finishing our work.
'So it kept the game interesting for the fans. And, I mean, they brought the heat, but obviously we dominated in a few areas.'