Hudson Young has opened up on his troubled teenage years and what motivated the Raiders star to get his life back on track and achieve his dream of playing in the NRL.
Young had just won the Harold Matthews Cup as a rising star at the Knights when he tested positive for a banned substance as a 16-year-old.
The store-bought supplement led to an 18-month ban and while unable to play footy the teenager found trouble plenty of trouble - which saw him locked up twice.
Young was caught drink driving and also faced the courts for trashing his school with a group of friends.
“Everything was flying, we just won a comp in Harold Matts and you’re on top of the world and make SG Ball a year young as well and then I tested positive for a banned substance and it just felt like your life spiralling down,” Young told the Fox League Podcast.
“I think the people that you surround yourself with and hang out with is why you go down paths and it’s also why you get out of the path that you’re going down as well.
“You don’t have sport to look forward too, as a kid growing up footy’s everything especially in the Maitland/Newcastle area everyone just lives and breathes footy and you know nothing else other than to play footy, touch footy, (rugby) union whatever it is and you’ve always got sport to lean on.
“I feel like when you get that taken away you start doing things that you wouldn’t do on the weekend because you’ve not got footy on a Saturday or Sunday so then you go out drinking and partying and all that sort of stuff.
“I probably started to make mistakes that I wouldn’t have played if I was playing footy and I feel like they’re massive lessons that I’ve learned.”
Young, who was this week picked in extended Kangaroos squad ahead of the World Cup, told the Fox League Podcast about the moment his world came crashing down.
Young, 24, knew he needed to change while sitting by himself in a jail cell as a teen and reflecting on his life.
“You don’t have your phone, you don’t have anything and you just sit there and I remember they were calling mum and mum didn’t answer,” he said.
“Then they were calling my aunty and I started to really freak out because I knew this isn’t the type of person I was.
“Your mum and that don’t really know half of the stuff you get up to when you’re a kid so for them to find out the stuff we were doing, even your dad as well.
“It was so hard to go home and look at them in the eye and I’m just really proud of the person I’ve become now.
“I feel like it’s helped me become the person I am today without the mistakes, you still live life on the edge and we’re grown men we’re always going to take risks but I feel like I’ve learned them lessons and I know when to draw the line now.”
It was also during Young’s time working at Salvation Army as part of his punishment from the courts that saw him change his approach to life.
Young decided the NRL was his goal and the now-Canberra star ditched the bad habits and made rugby league his top priority.
“I think living with my nan and pop and stuff like that, I think there was a time where there was a few of us that trashed the school that I went too,” Young said.
“We ended up getting in a bit of trouble for that and doing community service and I went from playing footy every Saturday and Sunday to going to Salvos and packing clothes on a Sunday for 8-10 hours or whatever it was to do your time like that.
“I think that was a massive change in me where I was sitting there and saying like this is not the person I want to be and then I stopped training before that and then growing up all I ever used to do is train.
“It was probably a light bulb moment that hit me and realised that NRL is where I want to go and I sort of spoke to some people and I can still make it once I come back from this ban and I’m only going to be 17 when I return.
“When I had that lightbulb moment I just started ripping in, training, cut all the drinking out and really went after it.”
Young also spoke of the influence the late Peter Mulholland had on getting him to where he is today.
The legendary scout gave Young a chance when many had given up, signing him at the Raiders on an under-20s contract.
“He was really supportive of me even when he found out I tested positive to a banned substance,” Young revealed.
“I still spoke to him and then he sort of never gave me much at the time but he was always that kind of person that looked over me and made sure that I was ok coming through the grades and he put me on contract at Newcastle.
“It was actually a time when I was sitting in class in school and I didn’t know how or what to do to get back into a system but the manager I had at the time told me that he didn’t want to manage me anymore and I had to find someone else.
“I ended up texting Sam Ayoub who I’m with now and also reached out to Pete Mulholland and he said that he’d talk to Sam and it was about three days later he told me to come down to his office and sign an under 20s deal with the Raiders.”
