Taylor Young still sees Perth as his long-term home having started 2025 as East Perth Eagles captain, but right now his full focus is on making the most of NBL1 East championship contending opportunity at Sutherland Sharks.

Young started the season having been appointed as East Perth captain in what was his third season in the NBL1 West having first come to Australia to play in Rockhampton before stints also with the Gladstone Port City Power and then in the NBL1 North at the South West Metro Pirates.

Adding to his value for any team in the country he is now naturalised as well so counts as a local and the 34-year-old combo guard started the season strongly at the Eagles before suffering a torn hamstring back on April 17 in a win over the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

That's where things got interesting with Young and the Eagles not agreeing on when his return date should be with him feeling within eight weeks was realistic, but the club's advice was a more conservative approach in a bid to limit the chance of a recurrence.

In the end, the player and club parted ways, and Young remained confident a return to play wasn’t far away. He proved to be right because he played his first game in the NBL1 East on Saturday and was out there for over 20 minutes in the Sutherland Sharks' win over the Maitland Mustangs.

A hectic last week

It all happened very quickly where Young left Perth for Sydney last Tuesday, had two practice sessions with his new Sutherland teammates including Sydney Kings pair Kouat Noi and Jason Spurgin, and then was out there playing on Saturday.

He helped the Sharks to the win over the defending champion Mustangs, but he was just relieved that it all worked out even if it was a bit of a whirlwind.

"Last week for me was a long time coming. I had felt good for a while but now I actually got to get on the court and did something about it," Young said.

"So I landed on Tuesday night, had dinner with the GM and the coach, and then Wednesday night we had practice and Thursday night we had practice.

"In between that I went and got shots up, and did my rehab stuff that my trainer, Cameron Bulley out of Bioweapon Performance, has set up for and he's been with my since I first got hurt.

"It's basically just been head down and getting down to work to make sure I could be as ready as I could be for the game on Saturday."

First game with the Sharks

It was Young's first game since April 17 so naturally he wasn’t quite in the game condition he'd like to be. Naturally there were the nerves about not only how his body would hold up, but being part of a team and in a league he was playing in for the first time.

Young ended up playing just over 21 minutes for 13 points on 5/10 field goal shooting in the 87-75 win at Sutherland Basketball Stadium with Noi adding 21 points, Spurgin 13 and Lochlan Hutchison 12.

Understandably Young was nervous coming into the game, but by the end of it loved everything about his first experience with the Sharks and in the NBL1 East.

"Before the game I just went through my normal routine. I woke up, got shots up, ate breakfast and then slept all day," Young said.

"Then when I got to the arena, you get the game day nerves and it felt like I was playing for the first time again because it's been so long. I was trying not to psych myself out and once I got on the court I felt comfortable, I felt like I should have been there from the beginning.

"The team all made it really easy for me, the coach made it easy for me and it's always easy to play with a guy like Kouat Noi who attracts so much attention. I think my first shot was a catch and three that he found me for, and it just felt easy.

"It felt like I belonged other than being extremely out of shape, it felt good being out there. We had a plan going into the game of how the coach wanted to use me and my minutes restriction, and it was a good atmosphere and the crowd was amazing, and it was fun."

Differences from the West to East

Having previously played in the NBL1 North and then joining the West, what Young had noticed back in Western Australia this year was how the scoring has sky rocketed including top two teams Warwick Senators and Rockingham Flames almost averaging 110 points a game.

While he enjoys that fast pace, he also likes the more physical and slightly slower pace that he's discovering in the NBL1 East based on his experience so far with Sutherland.

"The first thing Lochlan Hutchison told me when I got here was that you can pressure the ball a little bit more and play hands on because they let you play a little bit here," Young said.

"That's the biggest difference and you can be a little more physical by bumping cutters and things like that without having to worry about the ticky tack fouls getting called.

"So I was getting bumped when cutting to the basket or being knocked over when driving to the basket and they weren’t necessarily calling it. So I had to be a little more under control the next time around, but I enjoy that physicality.

"Even on our team, we want to run but it's not as fast paced as over in the West. Back there, half the time you are seeing teams score in the high 90s or hundreds so over here it's more physical and not quite as fast paced or high scoring."

Coming into a strong Sharks team

Not only is Young happy to be back out on the court, but he has joined a Sutherland team who are genuine contenders especially with him on board as that potential last piece of the puzzle.

It's already a Sharks team featuring Kings pair Noi and Spurgin, and then key pieces to that 2023 championship team in the NBL1 East like Hutchison, Geoff Gerlach and Adrian Cabera, and also now having Luke Jamieson on board.

He might be coming in on the back end, but Young is excited by what lies ahead for a Sharks team currently sitting fifth at 8-5.

"I kinda got blessed with this one and shoutout to my agent and my old coach, Brady Walmsley," Young said.

"He made the connection for me and helped get everything sorted for me and the team has been so good from top to bottom already. And the coach isn’t just playing the NBL guys or Lochlan and myself or Jamo, he's giving everyone a chance.

"He's using the whole team and in that first game I played 20 off the bench, Geoff played 15 or 20, AC I think played about 20 and everybody contributed in a certain way. I think that's a good balance and everybody knows their role, and all they are trying to do is win.

"I'm part of a team that is used to winning and everybody just wants to do whatever it takes in their moment to contribute to us winning. We've got a lot of pieces and I couldn’t be more grateful to be part of this little run we're trying to go on."

How the end at Eagles happened

Young had felt like he'd found a long-term home at the Eagles in the NBL1 West coming into a third season in 2025 and being appointed on a talented team with two imports, and two other players like himself who originally came to Australia as imports but are now naturalised to be playing as locals.

While Young had his moments after he was let go from the Eagles because of how he and coach Carl Filpo had such a different vision of his potential return, now that he has had time to digest the situation he understands where East Perth were coming from.

"Now that it's all over I understand the way Carl and the physio were thinking and what they were afraid of," Young said.

"I guess with this type of injury you can do it again if you don't do the rehab right, which was their main concern. They didn’t want to put me on the court and have it happen again.

"I had conversations with Carl about it back there and I do understand the business of basketball, but I didn’t think I was going to get let go because of the injury.

"This is the first time I've been cut because of injury, but it's not the first time I've been let go by a team and it's just the way the business happens sometimes."

Young was always confident that a return within six to eight weeks was possible while the Eagles medical stuff felt that what was best for him would be to not try to return until the last week or two of the regular season.

However, Young felt good with how his recovery was going and was always confident he could get back to play within six weeks, and he did.

"Looking back on the injury when it happened, that next week I went through a workout with Desi and I didn’t feel fine like I could play, but I was still able to run, walk and jump and everything like that," Young said.

"I felt like I should be good within eight weeks which is what the doctor said, and I was even going to try to get back within six or seven if I could.

"I ended up going to another doctor and getting an ultrasound, and everything was on track and healing, and he said basically that by the time I get to Sydney I should be OK."

Plans beyond this season

While his 2025 NBL1 season certainly has gone down a path he never imagined, it hasn’t necessarily changed Young's long-term vision where he'd like to finish his playing days in the NBL1 West and then set up life after basketball in Perth.

"I wouldn’t say this has thrown away all my plans, I still want to call Perth home. I met a lot of good people there within East Perth and off the court and stuff like that," Young said.

"I made a lot of connections that can help me with life after basketball and just good people in general. So I would like to go back to Perth and granted that all depends on the opportunities that come my way, but I did talk to a couple of teams there when I got let go from East Perth.

"I'm just more open now to what comes next and I know I do want to still be in Australia and I'm looking for a new place to live back in Perth once this season is done here.

"I'm open to anything and I will talk to my agent and old coach, Brady Walmsley, to see what he thinks will be best for me right after this season, but for now I'm just focused on making the most of the rest of this season in Sydney."

Chris Pike

Young embracing unexpected move to Sharks