{"id":784035,"date":"2026-07-07T04:15:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T04:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/784035\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T04:15:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T04:15:31","slug":"dockers-star-unlikely-for-afl-blockbuster-against-swans-the-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/784035\/","title":{"rendered":"Dockers star unlikely for AFL blockbuster against Swans | The Standard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HaydenHayden Young is doubtful to play against the Sydney Swans but his return is not far away. Photo: Richard Wainwright\/AAP PHOTOS<\/p>\n

Fremantle have all but ruled out star midfielder Hayden Young as they prepare for a top-two blockbuster against Sydney.<\/p>\n

Optimistic Young will prove his fitness quickly after his latest groin injury, Dockers coach Justin Longmuir could only lament a five-day turnaround between last week’s defeat to GWS and this Thursday’s clash against the Swans.<\/p>\n

Young, who has played just nine games this season, hurt a groin in the ladder-leading Dockers’ shock loss to GWS on Saturday and finished the match on the bench.<\/p>\n

Longmuir is adamant the 25-year-old midfielder wouldn’t be ruled out of action for long, holding out some hope for his appearance against the Swans.<\/p>\n

“He’d be a chance to get up if it wasn’t a five-day break,” Longmuir said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“A five-day break is going to make it pretty tight for him.<\/p>\n

“We’ll see how he feels today, but yes, I don’t think this is going to be a massive setback.”<\/p>\n

Should Young prove his fitness, his inclusion will be a massive boost against Sydney’s star midfield of Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, fit-again Errol Gulden and ruck Brodie Grundy.<\/p>\n

Heeney was outstanding with 27 disposals, eight clearances and a goal, while Grundy monstered the Western Bulldogs with 60 hitouts.<\/p>\n

Longmuir wasn’t willing to give up their game plan for the Swans’ engine room.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, we have to work that out later,” Longmuir said.<\/p>\n

\"FremantleFremantle head coach Justin Longmuir has some big calls to make against the Swans. (Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

“You can’t lock down on everyone. You’ve got to trust your players that you’ve got out there, and you trust your system as well. <\/p>\n

“It’ll be a balance. We’ve also got – Curnow’s had an outstanding year, Grundy in the ruck, (defender Nick) Blakey. They’ve got good players all over the ground.<\/p>\n

“It’s balanced between stopping individuals and trying to stop a system, so we’ll strike that balance.”<\/p>\n

Longmuir will reunite with Swans counterpart Dean Cox after serving as his assistant for this year’s State of Origin game, sharing the WA coaches’ box.<\/p>\n

“It’s probably a bit hard to say, unless you’re internal and you’re across the day-to-day,” Longmuir said.<\/p>\n

“He likes throwing things around. Especially when I was working with him, he’s a good relationship builder and really good at the technical side of the game.<\/p>\n

“He doesn’t mind moving the magnets, looking at the way that they’ve played this year.<\/p>\n

“He’s tried different things across the course of the season, probably expect the same this week.”<\/p>\n

Australian Associated Press<\/p>\n

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Loading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hayden Young is doubtful to play against the Sydney Swans but his return is not far away. Photo:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-784035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}