Hayden Young – Deck of DT 2024

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Marcus Bontempelli, Jordan Dawson, Clayton Oliver, Tom Green.

Having size and skill around the ball is common practice in the AFL these days and thankfully for us Fantasy coaches, Fremantle have recognized that Hayden Young offers plenty as a powerful, inside mid.

Why should I pick him?

Defender, turned inside midfielder…where do I sign?

In the last five rounds of 2023, we saw Justin Longmuir move Hayden Young to an inside mid role with great affect. Young averaged 23 possessions, 3 marks, 7 tackles and 98 Fantasy points across those games and when we ignore his first match as a midfielder where he only got 52% CBAs, in lieu of 75% plus in the other four, then he averaged 102 Fantasy points. It’s a relatively small sample size but it tells us what Young can do as an inside mid so let’s imagine a full season of it.

Even the pros were big on Young’s move to the midfield:

I attended Fremantle’s intra club last weekend and can confirm that Young had no secondary position. It was inside mid and inside mid only. During the game, he was strong at the ball, tackled well and linked up to deliver it lace out to his teammates. Most importantly, Young looks super fit and has completed a full preseason thus ticking all the boxes for having a big year.

Priced at 89, Young is the definition of a discounted premium. With the midfield move real and opportunity to increase his tackling numbers, I think it is reasonable to assume he’ll average approximately 98 Fantasy points placing him as a Top 6 defender at a bargain price.

It’s basically a no brainer picking Young but if you need more of a reason then let me add that he has the best mid season bye being Round 13, Freo have a relatively soft draw to start the season and he’s been very durable over the last two years.

Why shouldn’t I pick him?

Last season when Young had that small sample size at the stoppages, Nat Fyfe was not alongside him thus there could be a slight regression in scoring. I’d argue however that if Fyfe is there wining the contested ball and feeding it out to the likes of Young, then it will initiate ball movement for the Dockers and increase Fantasy scoring for all their midfielders.

It’s not just Fyfe, however. Longmuir has traditionally played a tight group of centre bounce midfielders in the past but this year it appears that there will be a bigger spread. Freo’s CBA’s could be Serong, Brayshaw, Fyfe, Young, O’Meara and Johnson all in one game not to mention Brodie and Erasmus waiting in the wings. Worst case, if Young loses a few CBA’s here and there, he’ll just mop up at half back and that will give him an opportunity to get some easy plus 6’s.

It should be noted that Young’s time in the midfield last year was as a tagger. History tells us that when taggers are given an assignment, they can sometimes forget about winning their own ball. This is definitely a risk that applies to Young but when he played a ‘cooler’ role on Lachie Neale in Round 21 last year, he kept him to a modest 25 possessions but his own stat line read 29 touches, 3 marks, 10 tackles and 119 Fantasy points. That said, I reckon there could be some moments of frustrations with Young’s scores from week to week.

Deck of DT Rating.

ACE

There’s no typo, Young is an Ace because discounted premiums that are near guaranteed to be top in their line are absolute gold in AFL Fantasy. Young is what we strive for in all our premo picks to start the season. Ownership will change (currently 36%) the closer we get to Round 1 but there will be safety in numbers owning Young just in case it all goes belly up.

Naturally, the appeal with Young is his new midfield role but the potential mix of playing midfield and a touch of half back allows him to hit all stat lines in a big way, a bit like Jack Sinclair last season.

Ultimately, if you’re not starting Young then kiss goodbye to a hat / car in 2024. He is an absolute lock for my team.

Follow @JeppaDT and also @PlusSixPodcast

Jeppa

A legend of the AFL Fantasy game, Jeppa provides the best rookie content on the internet, bar none! Follow the man behind the most viewed Fantasy series on the web, the Juniors, on Twitter: @JeppaDT.