Jamie Young was lost for words after he helped Western United to keep another clean sheet and win its first ever A-League Men Championship.
The United goalkeeper played a major role all season long with a string of match-winning performances between the sticks, and speaking immediately after the match he said it hadn’t quite sunk in for him.
“It’s hard to put into words. We’ll give it a week and see what comes to the surface. I’m just so proud to be at this Club and play with those players,” he said.
Young joined United before the beginning of this season, leaving Brisbane Roar where he had spent seven seasons and grown into one of the league’s best goalkeepers.
Moving to the West of Victoria provided Young with a new challenge, and he has since enjoyed some of the best times of his career, and clearly didn’t want that to end right away.
“I kind of don’t want to the season to finish. I was at the training round yesterday and I was like ‘I can’t believe it’s the last training session’. I love the training ground, I love this Club. It’s one of the best days of my life,” he said.
Young had played under John Aloisi during that time at Brisbane Roar and had been through the United coach’s heartbreak at the pointy end of previous seasons.
Brisbane lost the Premier’s Plate on the final day of the season in 2016 and lost consecutive semi-finals with Aloisi in charge before the Socceroos legend went some three years without a coaching job.
Young had no hesitation when asked to join Aloisi at Western United and said he was delighted for him to be able to banish those demons and silence his detractors.
“He said to me in his second text, he said ‘we’re going to go win this thing’. He is a winner, he’s done it as a player,” he said.
“I’m so glad for him, because he didn’t quite get the rub of the green previously, he’s got good people around him that enable him to do what he does and that’s what he can produce. I’m so happy for him.”
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Young played every minute of the entire campaign, leading the league with 10 clean sheets and 95 saves in the regular season.
The 36-year-old added another two shutouts in the four Finals games and made another 19 saves, including one stupendous stop in the Elimination Final win over Wellington Phoenix.
Along with many of his teammates, Young was instrumental in securing this title for the Club, which has also given him his first winner’s medal in Australian football.
