Young spoke to reporters for the first time as a permanent head coach on Tuesday morning after signing a two-year deal that will last through to the end of the 2028 season.
Club CEO Tim Watsford has set Young the ambitious goal of steering the team to finals in 2027, which would end a top-eight drought that is set to be extended to an eighth consecutive season in 2026.
Young took over the team on an interim basis in mid-April after predecessor Shane Flanagan was sacked in response to the club losing their first seven games of the season under his stewardship.
Despite beginning his tenure with a disastrous 62-16 flogging at the hands of the Sydney Roosters on ANZAC Day and eventually setting an 0-11 start to 2026, Young has helped the last-placed Dragons make some measurable improvement with wins over Wests Tigers (24-10) and Brisbane Broncos (30-26), whilst a little bit of good fortune and/or polished play could have also seen them defeat Newcastle (L 22-20) and Canberra (L 16-24).
Their most recent performance against the New Zealand Warriors, despite the final result (L 20-12), was one of their most encouraging of the season, with more than one contentious refereeing decision going against them on the night.
Whilst he refused to wade into the debate about the refereeing, Young said that game was further proof the squad was moving in the right direction.
"In the last four or five weeks I think the fans can see what we're trying to be. We've been a lot more consistent," Young said.
The Dragons have the opportunity to reduce the deficit from 16th place from six points to four when they face the Gold Coast Titans at Kogarah and Young has not set any end-of-season ambitions such as avoiding the wooden spoon.
"I don't like coming second, let alone last, but that (avoiding last place) is not my priority," Young explained.
"My priority is just preparing the players every week. That's my job. I'm not looking further ahead than one week at a time. This week is the Titans and it's about being better than we were last week.
"It's important to back up from our performance against the Warriors and we need to improve in some areas."
The young Dragons pack have made demonstrable improvement in recent weeks, led in particular by Hamish Stewart and the Couchman brothers, all of whom hail from the Wollongong area and are all under 23 years of age.
All three players featured in Flashscore's NRL Team of the Week and Young is backing his forward pack to drive the team forward in 2027 and beyond.
"We feel very privileged to have the group that we've got at the moment and we'll be doing everything in our power to keep them here," Young replied when asked about his crop of promising youngsters, who will be key to fulfilling Watsford's goal of a 2027 finals appearance.
"I know for a fact that they've grown up, just like me, wanting to play for the Dragons. That hopefully holds some weight when they have to decide whether to stay or go and hopefully the environment I've created helps them stay.
"We've got a good group that are dedicated to turning this thing around and we need the fans' support. We need them to turn up to Kogarah this Sunday, playing a Titans team that are similar to us where they have improved under Josh Hannay but haven't had the results that they could have had in a lot of tight games."
The Dragons and Titans will do battle at 2pm local time on Sunday.
Aaron Murphy has been with Flashscore since 2018 and, as the founding editor of the Australian newsdesk, has reported on-site at several major events in Melbourne including the Australian Open, State of Origin, A-League, NBL and international cricket. You can read his pieces here and contact him on X or LinkedIn.
