Young holds off Kangaroos comeback for first win

After the bye in round one, the Cherrypickers looked to be getting on top at Alfred Oval on Sunday before the momentum soon changed.

With Ryan Dodson in the sin binned, Kangaroos were able to get themselves back into the contest.

However they couldn't find one last killer blow to fall to a 28-26 loss.

While still looking to improve their defence, Young captain-coach Nick Cornish was pleased to take the hard fought win.

"You have to be happy with a win and it was a good, tough, grind out win," Cornish said.

"There's a lot of positive signs but I think you can tell we are a little bit fresh and new as we can make it difficult on ourselves by pushing extra passes and not completing at times when we need to.

"There is still a long time to go."

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After the two teams exchanged tries to start the game, Young had jumped out to a 24-10 advantage.

However they soon found themselves in an arm wrestle as Kangaroos were able to capitalise on their extra man when Tyler Jones scored off a Jake Mascini break to cut the margin back to eight points at the break.

Two minutes into the second stanza the gap was only two as Jake Mascini left Mick Dodson in his wake to race 70 metres to score.

Tallis Smith dived over in the corner to hand Young a six-point lead with 24 minutes left.

Cherrypickers recruit Zane Bijorac then lost the ball over the line before Kangaroos had a try of their own denied for an obstruction play.

However a dropped ball coming off their own line put Young under plenty of pressure before Noa Fotu crossed in the corner.

Young maintained their lead though with Siegwalt's conversion attempt missing with nine minutes to play.

Both teams had opportunities to score again but couldn't break through.

Cornish was pleased to hold on.

"It's really good to get a win like that," he said.

"They are a very good side and I know they had a couple of injuries but they still attacked very well.

"We just need to work on not leaking silly points, we scored 28 points but you can't let teams score so many points and try to outscore them. We need to work on our D."

There are plenty of new faces in Young's line up but Nic Hall led the way at the back sparking plenty of their attacking opportunities.

After missing the grand final through injury, Cornish was impressed with his return.

"He's sensational especially with his efforts with the kick carries and returns," he said.

"Defensively even as when Rosey (Nathan Rose) poked his head through a couple of times with some short grubbers he just shut it down.

"He's just unreal."

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