In Round 21 last year, Aaron Young was part of one of the weirdest football stories you'll hear in the AFL.

Named as an emergency for the Power's clash with the Suns on the Gold Coast, Young was sent back to Coolangatta Airport to catch the last flight back to Adelaide in time for the next day's SANFL match. 

As Young was nearing the airport, a scramble to get him back to the Power-Suns game was unfolding.

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Angus Monfries's hip flexor was failing to respond in the final on-field warmup, forcing him to be an incredibly late withdrawal from the game.

It meant Andrew Moore - the nominated substitute - had to leave the green vest on the bench to await Young - the player who wasn't there.

In a last gasp call, the Power's football operations instructed Young to turn his taxi around and come back to Metricon Stadium.
What ensued was a crazy taxi ride.

"I was on the way to the airport, about halfway there, and got the call to turn around," Young told portadelaidefc.com.au at the time.

"The driver was good, he got the speed on and got me there about halfway through the first quarter.

"It was bizzare, I'd already checked into my flight the night before and was starting to think about Sunday's game against Norwood.

"It was probably good in the end [getting the call], I just went out there as sub and played game in tough conditions - I love those conditions."



Senior coach Ken Hinkley was left dumbfounded after the game, but not by the circumstances that forced the turn-around call to Young, but what prevented him from getting to the ground sooner. 


Prior to joining Port Adelaide, Hinkley had spent three years with the Suns on the Gold Coast.

So you can imagine his surprise to be told a traffic jam on the normally smooth-cruising weekend roads of Carrara had prevented his sub from getting to the match.

“Young was halfway back to the airport, but he got caught in a bit of a traffic jam on his way back to the game – can you believe that? There’s not much traffic on the Gold Coast,” Hinkley said.

Port Adelaide travels to Metricon Stadium to play the Gold Coast this weekend.