Jimmy Young

1880-1894
172 games
24 goals
Captain 1884
Premiership Player 1881, 1885, 1888, 1889 & 1890

Bio

In 1876, The Footballer published an educative piece on the importance of backmen in Australian football. It included the following passage:

“Back players are the very bone and sinew of the team; they should, therefore, be the best and most experienced men in it — skilful, swift, and sure, large-hearted and iron-nerved, good kicks with both feet, safe marks, men who keep their places, who play for the ball and can get it, men that can run with it or make sure of their kick when they do get it — because of them depends in great measure, the safety of the sticks, and a single failure or error of judgement on their part, may never be recovered in a game.”

The following year, James Alexander Young debuted for the Albert Park Football Club, quickly solidifying his position in its backline. In three seasons, Young played 17 games during a time when rule changes were made to speed up the game. Short kicking and ‘little marks’ revolutionised the code, and Young’s playing style suited the emerging tactical shift.

The game itself was booming. In addition to its growing popularity throughout Victoria — culminating in the formation of the Victorian Football Association (the VFA) in 1877 — organised leagues also spawned in South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and New South Wales. As one of the VFA’s founding members, Albert Park, founded in 1864, played a significant role in the early days of football’s development.

Young was 18 when he played his first VFA match for The Parkites, joining a team that featured future South Melbourne teammates Matt Minchin, Chris Thomas and Harry Latchford. At the time, as many as eight junior clubs existed within the South Melbourne district and by the end of the 1877 season, it had become apparent that the South Melbourne Football Club was the best-organised club ever seen in the area, with many believing they’d replace Albert Park as the region’s senior football club.

In 1879, South Melbourne achieved senior status. Before the 1880 season, Albert Park sank its identity as the two clubs amalgamated under the name of South Melbourne, adopting Albert Park’s red and white colours. As Mark Pennings said in Origins of Australian Football: Victoria’s Early History, “After years of local encouragement, Albert Park and South Melbourne finally amalgamated, and the whole district looked forward to greater success from its football representatives.”

He added, “South Melbourne was a much more robust and ambitious entity and almost immediately became a very powerful club. South Melbourne retained Albert Park’s red and white stripes. It also brought together one of the best defensive trios seen in the 1880s — George Major, Chris Thomas and Jimmy Young.”

Young arrived at South, nicknamed ‘The Little Wonder.’ His ability to repel opposition forward thrusts with poise and precision set him apart from most of the game’s defensive proponents. In many of the new club’s earliest wins, Young excelled, receiving best-on-ground honours in victories over West Melbourne, Carlton, and Melbourne. In August, Young travelled to South Australia as a key cog in the Victorian inter-colonial representative team. He played eight times for his state.

South Melbourne quickly formed a reputation as a tough side and finished the 1880 season as runners-up. In The Footballer, respected scribe ‘Follower’ declared, “Young, of South Melbourne, I consider was the best back player in the colony.”

After finishing third and second in their first two VFA seasons, the Southerners had built a team with the experience and talent to challenge powerhouse Geelong for the premiership. When the two teams met in July 1881, they played a draw, as Young controlled proceedings from South’s defensive zone. In September’s return bout, the Southerners prevailed at home, with Young declared best-on-ground in a win that essentially sealed the club’s first premiership. The Footballer declared Young a ‘brilliant all-round player.’

A letter to The Record declared the team’s success was “Chiefly attributable to the hearty cooperation of the playing members while vigorously contending for victory on the football arena, the almost entire absence of too much individual and consequently selfish play, their systematic method of training.”

Despite Young upholding his high standard of play and the addition of legendary leader ‘Sonny’ Elms, South struggled to maintain their premiership-winning level of 1881. By the time they finished mid-table in 1884, patience was wearing thin. Pennings said, “Most energy was directed at developing a regular training schedule, for Geelong had proved the value of top physical conditioning. South also created an ‘accident fund’ to cover injured players. This was an added incentive for potential recruits.”

The most prolific of those recruits was Peter ‘The Great’ Burns, who joined Young and his teammates from Ballarat Imperials. Burns became arguably the game’s greatest player of the nineteenth century. The team committed to a more rigorous training regime, with dividends showing through their improved performance, and the Southerners rose to challenge once again.

After a record-breaking 1885 win against Melbourne, in which Young claimed best-on-ground honours, ‘Goal Post’ wrote in The Sportsman, ‘The South Melbourne are a grand team — strong, fast, clever, good kickers, and splendid markers, play well together, and can last — in fact, about as fine a combination as has been got together for many a season.”

Record crowds crammed into the South Melbourne Cricket Ground throughout the year, and when South claimed the 1885 premiership after an undefeated season, they celebrated alongside 8,000 adoring fans. The Australasian described their unprecedented campaign as “The grandest performance in the annals of Victorian football.” They also named Young as one of the season’s top defensive players.

A runner-up finish the following year and third place in 1887 fuelled South’s desire to improve further and return to the game’s zenith. Young, now an experienced leader, helped drive the team towards its ultimate goal. Elms was an uncompromising leader, and his players responded unequivocally to his methods. Across the 1888, 1889 & 1890 seasons, South Melbourne won 49 matches, losing six and claiming the VFA premiership in each of those three years. The Swans Heritage List states, “The club assembled an imposing list of players with strength, skill and above all, power.”

The hat-trick of flags took Young’s personal tally to five. A phenomenal career came to a close when he retired in 1894, aged 35. After football, Young operated a prosperous cab business in South Melbourne before purchasing a hotel in Beaconsfield, where he and his wife raised their two children.

Influential sportswriter, Reg ‘Old Boy’ Willmott rated Young as one of the best he saw at South. “A most reliable player, always bests his man, gets his run and his kick, returning to his place instantly; plays well to his men, is always cool, is a good kick and can travel. When I played against him, he had been playing for more than 15 years and was still as lively as a colt.”

Also known as ‘Didley’, Young passed away at his son’s West Brunswick home in 1947, aged 88. He was inducted into the Sydney Swans Hall of Fame in 2020 and remains among the club’s most successful players.