Fremantle Dockers star Hayden Young is signed until 2033 and he wants his teammates to commit long term too

Fremantle midfielder Hayden Young hopes his decision to sign the longest contract in the AFL will inspire his teammates to re-commit to the club so they can chase the dream of winning the Dockers’ first premiership together. Young was contracted until 2027 when he would have qualified for free agency, but extended his deal until the end of 2033. He is one of eight Dockers contracted beyond 2027 with Luke Jackson, Jye Amiss, Shai Bolton, Sean Darcy, Jordan Clark, Brennan Cox and Josh Treacy also locked away. Alex Pearce and Andrew Brayshaw are entering the final year of their contracts and loom as the big signatures for the club throughout 2025. Young hopes more players will sign long term deals. “Hopefully. That’s the plan. We feel like we’ve got a great cohort of players so it would be great if we all sign on and go ahead and win a couple of flags,” he said. “It was something I always wanted to do. The prospect of being a Freo player for life was something that was really appealing to me. So when the opportunity was presented, I didn’t really think twice about it. “The opportunity to be one of the first players to win a premiership with the club is something that is really appealing to me. Going to another club and chasing that, you wouldn’t get the same satisfaction as sharing that experience with the people I’ve been with for the last five years. That was really the attraction for me. “I want to be one of the first players to hold up the cup with my teammates and share it with them. I’m really thrilled to be signed on for that long and hopefully during that period we can have a lot of success.” Young had a career-best season during 2024 but ended the year on a sour note when he broke his leg against Port Adelaide. The Victorian then suffered a knock to the same region while training before Christmas but completed match simulation on Monday and is confident he can gradually get back to training without restrictions. “We’re just managing my loads in the next few weeks so I can just continue training and get some match-sim under my belt. I’m travelling really well,” he said. “When I did it the first time I didn’t think I’d broken it. I just thought I had a corky. This time it was a little bit scarier. I thought it felt similar but luckily I escaped without a fracture which is a good sign that the bone healed really well. It took a pretty nasty knock and was able to withstand it although there was a bit of bruising, It was sort of a good result.”