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Fremantle young gun Hayden Young on track to become one of AFL’s superboots

Justin ChadwickThe West Australian
VideoChristian Porter and Mathias Cormann have thrown their support behind holding the AFL grand final in Perth

He’s only three games into his AFL career but Fremantle defender Hayden Young is already on track to become one of the league’s new superboots.

Young showed he was a star on the rise in last week’s 13-point loss to Gold Coast, snaring six marks among his 15 disposals.

The 19-year-old has already displayed a knack of floating back into packs to take important contested marks.

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But it is his pinpoint left-foot passes that have also become a major weapon.

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Veteran Stephen Hill has long been known as Fremantle’s best kicker, but he now faces a fight to retain that title against fellow left-footer Young.

“I’d definitely put him up there in the top couple of the best kicks in the team,” Hill said of Young, who was snared with pick No.7 in last year’s national draft.

“He has a damaging left foot.... and we want to give it to him as much as we can.

“I’m really impressed by the way he’s been going about his footy, especially on the weekend he was courageous.”

Saturday’s match was Hill’s first AFL appearance since July 13 last year.

Hill is hopeful he has now got on top of the soft tissue injuries that have plagued him over the past three years.

“I feel confident,” Hill said.

“During training I’m not holding back. I feel like it’s holding up.

“On the weekend I was confident in my body. Hopefully it holds up going forward.”

Fremantle (0-4) will be confident they can break their 2020 duck when they take on rock bottom Adelaide at Metricon Stadium on Sunday.

Both sides are yet to post a win this season but Fremantle have been close in three of their four games.

The Dockers will be without skipper Nat Fyfe (hamstring) but could welcome off-season recruit Blake Acres for his club debut.

The former Saints midfielder/forward missed round one with a hamstring tear and then injured his calf on the eve of the season resumption.

Connor Blakely is also in line for a recall while ruckman Sean Darcy (knee) is expected to slot back into the side.

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