The youngest guns to have played professional sport

LUCY Li might be about to break all sorts of records when she tees it up at the US Open at age 11, but who are youngest guns to have played in other sports?

AFL — TIM WATSON

With AFL players now cosseted and wrapped in cotton wool after being drafted, often until they’re 20, it’s hard to believe that Essendon great Tim Watson debuted for the Bombers when he was just 15 years and 305 days old in 1977.

Watson went on to play in 307 games and three premierships for the Dons, but his debut age is only good enough for fourth on the list of AFL young guns.

The youngest player to ever play VFL/AFL footy was St Kilda’s Claude Clough, who took to the field for the Saints aged 15 years and 209 days.

Claude’s debut game was notable for another reason — a controversy after the game ended in a draw but was later awarded to St Kilda when a point kicked by Melbourne at the end of the quarter was posthumously disallowed. It was St Kilda’s only win for the season.

NRL — JORDAN RANKIN

He might have skipped town to play for Hull, but when Jordan Rankin stepped onto the park for Gold Coast Titans in 2008, he became the third-youngest NRL debutant in rugby league history.

Rankin was aged 16 years and 238 days when he played his first game, coming off the bench against Newcastle in Round 22, and promptly returned to the youth ranks for the rest of the year.

He didn’t appear in the NRL again until 2011.

The youngest player in Australian rugby league history was prop Ray Stehr, who played his first game for Eastern Suburbs in the 1929 NSWRFL season, at the tender age of 16 years and 85 days.

CRICKET — PAT CUMMINS

Australia might have learned its lesson after debuting young paceman Pat Cummins against South African in Johannesburg at just 18 years and 193. Cummins became the second-youngest player ever to wear a baggy green, but hasn’t played another Test while enduring two injury-interrupted years since.

Cummins has a fair way to go before matching Aussie batsman Ian Craig, however. Craig broke records as a matter of course, and he is still the youngest ever player to play Test cricket for Australia, having been 17 years and 239 days old when he took on South African at the MCG in 1952.

Craig actually scored a career trifecta as the youngest person to play for Australia, the youngest to score a first-class double century and the youngest to captain his country when aged just 21.

NBA — ANDREW BYNUM

Kawhi Leonard became the NBA’s third-youngest ever NBA Finals MVP this week after doing a number on LeBron James and the Miami Heat, but he’s ancient history in comparison to the league’s youngest ever guns.

The three youngest NBA players are remarkably all still active in the league, with Andrew Bynum now at the Indiana Pacers, having debuted for the LA Lakers just six days after his 18th birthday.

Jermaine O’Neal is now alongside Australian Andrew Bogut at the Golden State Warriors (via six other NBA teams), but the 35-year-old was only 18 years and 53 days old when he first played for the Portland Trail Blazers in 1996.

You might have heard of the third-youngest player — a man by the name of Kobe Bryant, who was 19 years and 72 days old when he first suited up for the Lakers in 1996.

FOOTBALL — HARRY KEWELL

It’s World Cup time, so it’s only fitting that our football representative should be the youngest player to have ever worn the green and gold of the Socceroos.

Harry Kewell owns that honour, after he first played for Australia against Chile in 1996, ages 17 years and seven months.

Kewell scored his first goal for the Socceroos 18 months later in a World Cup qualifier against Iran.

TENNIS — MARTINA HINGIS

You name the “youngest ever” record and Swiss miss Martina Hingis probably won it.

Hingis made her professional debut just two weeks after her 14th birthday, and within months she’d become the youngest player to win a grand slam match when won moved through to the second round of the Australian Open.

She became the youngest grand slam winner ever when she teamed with Helena Sukova and won the doubles at Wimbledon at age 15 and nine months in 1995, then became the youngest grand slam winner in the 20th century by winning the Australian Open at age 16 years and three months.

Two months later she was the youngest No. 1-ranked player in tennis history.

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