Darius Boyd has been the whipping boy in Brisbane for the past couple of seasons.
Last year, critics accused him of being afraid of contact because he missed or sometimes even avoided important duels, and 2020 went downhill on the personal and team fronts.
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A loss to the Cowboys tonight will see the Broncos officially become the worst team in club history by “winning” the wooden spoon for the first time, and Boyd has been targeted as one of many who won’t pull their weight could.
Boyd’s poor defensive stats, played out of position in the center left by coach Anthony Seibold, became all too common and the veteran was hammered again, even after regaining his # 1 jersey when he was beaten by striker Nat Butcher during a defeat by 58-12 was stranded to the taps on round 16.
But the recent field troubles he faces tell only a tiny part of the story of Darius Boyd.
After announcing this season would be his last at the start of his year, the 33-year-old will play his final NRL game against North Queensland – and his career is making a notable read.
Seventeen attempts in 28 origins for Queensland, 337 first class games and 23 Tests for Australia – all victories that make him the best-studded kangaroo in 112-year history who never tasted a defeat in green and gold – are the real topics of conversation for Boyd Travel.
The defender / winger was an automatic pick on the star-studded backlines of the Maroons and Kangaroos and has always been one of the most reliable players on the field throughout his ten-year career as a representative.
Not as monstrous as Greg Inglis or as fascinating as Billy Slater, Boyd always found a way to cross the strip at one end and protect it with his life at the other.
Beyond his work on the soccer field, Boyd’s transformation from a grumpy young man with a chip on his shoulder to one of the most respected leaders in rugby league is the feat that deserves to be most celebrated when he retires.
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Who could forget that after following father figure Wayne Bennett from Brisbane to St. George, Boyd hosted one of the rugby league’s most iconic press conferences, delivering monosyllabic responses with scorn as he faced reporters for 42 seconds.
Thanks to YouTube, that achievement will never die.
Here was an angry man determined to push people away. Boyd followed Bennett to Newcastle before returning to Brisbane in 2015 but bottomed out and caused Boyd’s partner Kayla to leave him.
It was the kick on the back that he needed.
“It was my wife (Kayla), she said she had enough, she said it wasn’t something she wanted to stay for and be a part of this relationship for,” Boyd told Triple M. in 2017.
“She didn’t like it and even I wasn’t happy. I was angry, not sure what was going on, or why I was feeling the way I was feeling, or why I was acting the way I was.
“Something had to change. Her goodbye was the last straw that I really needed to change something and do something. “
So he’s changed. Boyd sought psychiatric treatment and made it through the other side. In 2017, he was named captain of the Broncos in recognition of how far he had come since that infamous interview on the Red V.
Even when Seibold took Boyd down the captain that season, he remained a leader. That’s why legends like Paul Gallen asked Brisbane to reinstate him as a full-back so that he could lead the way as the most experienced player at Red Hill.
The try-saving tackles, the scything running through the middle and tumbling down the sideline, which were synonymous with Boyd in his pomp, sadly weren’t there when the Broncos crashed and burned this season.
But an ordinary campaign or two cannot – and will – not spoil a career that ends with Boyd as the ninth best player in NRL history.
Retired athletes often struggle with a loss of identity. But Boyd is more than a footballer.
He’s already written a book Fight against the blues, which tells the eye-opening story of a man who saw the light after suffering through dark times and wants to help others do the same, and plans to hold mental wellbeing workshops in the Broncos when his game days are up are.
Boyd has retired a champion, but his best work may yet come.
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