Here I am. Long before the switch to the LU forums, I was singing from the Michael Young songsheet on the original Knights forums. But, suffice to say, it was for everything that Young is now considered weak at. He had a good step (which has since disappeared), a quick dart (no longer there), could punch a hole through the line (can't break a tackle to save himself now) and all the makings of a David Peachey. At one stage he was considered the obvious replacement for Robbie O'Davis. His ill-health put an end to that.
It's been somewhat of a metamorphisis for Young as a result of his sickness. The competitive nature of contracts had me convinced he would struggle to get back to PL, let alone first grade. Since that sickness he has been in somewhat of a Dan Tolar predicament -- always scraping through for another one year deal it seems, proving just before contract time that he is good enough.
I talk about Young metamorphing into a new player, but I guess in stark contrast to a butterfly, Young has come out far less pretty than when he went in. He started as a Peachey-stunt-double who could almost play in a dinner suit. He even had the shoulder pads. A life-threatening illness, and the loss of 15kg later, Young is the caterpillar, not the butterfly. But he's a pretty tough sort of catepillar -- far more useful to us when we're well-known as the worst defensive team in the competition.
I can only pick out some of Roopy's insightful points from here:
roopy said:
Young - what a rollercoaster his career has been.... He started 2006 pre-season as a sickly looking kid with no condition on him at all. If he was a racehorse he would have been sent to the knackery..... To me he looks to be getting bigger and stronger by the game. He will tackle anything that moves and take on any role his coach gives him with gusto.
i swear he has not broken out of a tackle since 2004 - and i have been watching and waiting for it to happen.
I don't think he's scored a try since 1994, yet he still makes for a pretty handy player.
The references to Reegan Tanner are predictable. Throw Troy Fletcher, Scott Conley, Sean Rudder, Todd Lowrie and Jarrod O'Doherty into the ring too. They're all seemingly talentless players who fell into first grade by default. The difference is: Young hasn't made nearly as many defensive or attacking mistakes as these players. The only criticism you could level at Young is that he's boring. But he's no less effective. The reference to Fletcher is important here: Fletcher did one thing of use in his career, one thing only: the 40 metre break in the 1997 Grand Final that got us within 30 metres of the tryline that Darren Albert would cross minutes later. Regardless of where Michael Young's career takes him, and whether he lives up to the reviews he had four years ago, I know that should circumstances require it, Young will be that sort of player we'll want if we need someone to get stuck in and do some dirty work. He's keen, cool and seems to tackle forwards for breakfast. I've got a lot of time for the bloke.
