DRAGONS coach Dean Young is not expecting the world from highly-touted teenager Jayden Sullivan and has urged others to follow suit - even beyond the 19-year-old's debut on Sunday.
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Young wielded the axe following a dismal showing against Newcastle last week, bringing in youngsters Max Feagai, Eddie Blacker and Sullivan for the match against a depleted Storm side at Kogarah.
The diminutive livewire has been dubbed the future of the joint-venture but Young cautioned against placing too much weight on his young shoulders as he navigates the early stages of an NRL career.
"The NRL's ruthless," Young said.
"When these kids come into first grade the opposition probably don't know much about them and they might come up with a couple of things that shock them. After they play a few first grade games there's coaches looking at every minor detail of the opposition and they come up with plans to stop them.
"That's all part of the journey but Sully's a tough kid, he backs himself, and that's all I'm looking for [on Sunday]. He certainly plays what's in front of him, he's not a type of kid that just plays structure, he actually plays the defence.
"He's really pumped, I know his family are all really proud of him, everyone in the club is excited to see him play, but we've got to realise he's played hardly any footy this year so we can't expect too much from him.
"I'm not expecting the world from him, he's only a young man. The players around him, especially the more experienced ones, they need to make sure they're looking after him out on the field."
The timing seems right but Young insists he isn't just giving out first grade jumpers for the sake of it, with Sullivan's debut coming at the expense of Corey Norman after a poor showing last week.
"We've lost four in a row and there's got to be consequences," Young said.
"I wasn't just going to give young blokes an opportunity, the fact is we haven't been performing to the standards that I want so I've made change. The boys in the side for the previous four weeks have had a great opportunity to play well and we haven't got the results.
"The performance on the weekend wasn't good enough so I've made change and hopefully [dropped players] realise they are the consequences of not performing to the standard that we want.
"Jayden Sullivan's been training really well so he gets the opportunity. Max [Feagai] showed me enough int he 20 minutes he played [last] weekend that he deserves another opportunity and young Eddie Blacker has been waiting in the wings for some time now. Hell get a small bit of time at the back end of the game."
The match will also be Young's swansong after nearly two decades of service to the joint-venture in playing and coaching capacities.
North Queensland confirmed on Friday that Young will shift to Townsville to assist newly appointed cowboys coach Todd Payten next year. It's a relief to have his future sorted, but Young said he's not looking past Sunday's fixture.
"I'm glad I've got to the decision, it's the best decision for my coaching career that I move and have a bit of a change.
"I feel like the timing's right and my family, my wife Brooke and my three kids, are excited for a bit of an adventure up north. When I get there it'll be exciting but the job here's not finished.
"Sitting in the shed afterwards I'll take it all in but, at the moment, the job's not done. I've committed to this playing group to give them my best for the remainder of the year and I plan on doing that."