WERRIBEE'S Jarrod Young plays it tight. Sometimes too tight for his opponent's liking, judging by the tribunal register this season.
At Chirnside Park they're calling Young ``The Pest'' and it's getting to the stage where other teams must be considering putting a can of Pea Beau to the 21-year-old stopper. It would be preferable to striking him and getting suspended.
Sandy's David Gallagher copped a week for clipping him 100m off the ball in Round 3. Scorpion Steve Powell cracked him twice in Round 8 and received four matches. And last week Tassie Devil Brett Geappen took an automatic one-game penalty for dropping his knees into the tenacious young Tiger.
Young was the defendant and not the witness after Round 16, when he suspended for one game for striking Northern Bullant Trent Sporn. He was also fined a match payment for making contact with an umpire.
Young makes no apologies for tailing his opponents so closely. It's his ticket to senior football.
This season he's played on Gallagher, Powell, Benny McGlynn, Mathew Stokes, David Rodan, Brett Johnson, Ben Setchell and Matthew Lappin. And in the finals he'll be asked to take the twinkle out of another star onballer.
Young admits he niggles away with bumps and checks, intent on touching nerve ends. He reckons players can take it for only so long.
``If you do it for two or three quarters you get under their skin,'' he said. `` They want to rack up numbers, get their 30 possessions, and if they can't do it they lose it a bit. At the same time I reckon I start playing better if I know I've got them frustrated.
``That's my role, to stop players. That's what I go out there to do. `Axe' (coach Simon Atkins) says to me, `You're there to lock away, I don't care if your man gets 10 possessions and you get five'. But he encourages me to make them accountable when we've got the footy.''
The Powell incident put a focus on Young because when they went to the tribunal he did the experienced Saint no favours. The Scorpions were fuming.
Trying to shake his shadow early in the game, Powell had thrown his arm back and given him a whack across the face. Young was stunned _ it turned out the blow fractured his jaw _ and when he regained his bearings and resumed the chase Powell popped him with a left hook.
That night Young had his 21st birthday party and was unable to eat. ``I wasn't happy. I'd paid for all this food and I couldn't have any!'' he said.
Young figures that few of his opponents can out-run him. When he was 17 he did a 16.1 beep test, marking him out as an outstanding endurance runner.
He enjoys the tagging role because he's invariably on a top-liner who leads him to the ball. ``You're always in the action and it's always a challenge to beat a good player. I look forward to it, going out and doing a good job for the team.''
Young knows he's not the most glamorous footballer who's put on a boot, saying he'd had to work on his skills ever since he started playing. ``They're not a strength but I keep working on them. I have to. My strengths are my running and my hardness. I like to get down and dirty.''
Atkins said that while Young could negate, his next step was to create. That would come with more experience and confidence.
``We'll continue to work on his kicking and handballing and general skill level,'' Atkins said.
``We knows he's hard, he's got a big motor, can run all day, and he has a good knowledge of football. He understands the game. He's a smart kid.''
Young's story is one of persistence. From Grovedale, he played 10 games for the Geelong Falcons in 2003 but there were no great wraps on. Still, he took himself to Werribee, got on the list and was named emergency a few times.
Last year he broke through for two senior games. At the end of the season he considered returning to Grovedale. Eventually he decided he'd worked too hard for a debut and could play at the level if he got more opportunities.
``I didn't want to go back and become a local footballer,'' he said. ``I thought I'd give it another year and it's really paid off.''
His running ability again made him a star of the pre-season and he was elevated to the seniors in Round 3.
Young is a fourth-year apprentice fitter and turner at Geelong. You might say he's fitting into the Werribee side nicely, and he's turning into a valuable player.
Last Modified on 22/02/2008 11:14