By LAURENCE ROSEN
To truly understand the Tom Boyd story and its crescendo on a magnificent October afternoon, it’s important to start from its ground zero back in 2014.
Back then, the team from the mighty west had hit rock bottom.
On a gloomier October week, captain Ryan Griffen walked out on the club while then coach Brendan McCartney fell on his sword just 24 hours later. There were allegations of a playing group so united in its disapproval of him they drove the now Melbourne development and strategy coach out of the club.
The beleaguered Dogs needed to make a statement, an assertion to the football world that things were going to be fine soon enough. In walked Tom Boyd, a 19-year-old former No.1 draft pick who had played just one season of football at Greater Western Sydney before accepting a mega-money Western Bulldogs offer.
A month later they appointed Luke Beveridge as coach, a calming influence straight from the Alastair Clarkson football factory.
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Tom Boyd, a new Bulldog hero.
In his first season at the Dogs, Boyd played 14 games, more than adequate for a second-year key forward, and he improved along the way. He kicked four goals and took six marks against Brisbane, one of his 2015 highlights, but he was only getting started.
Forward to 2016. The Tom Boyd story that culminated on Grand Final day couldn’t have happened without the rollercoaster of a year that preceded it. After injuring his shoulder in round 6, he didn’t return to the senior team until round 17. In between he faced a concoction of shoulder rehab and VFL appearances while being internally suspended for an altercation with team-mate Zaine Cordy.
Already facing degree of scrutiny arguably unnecessary for a 20-year-old key forward, the football pundits came for him. The howls of “what a waste of money” were heard across the football world, with Geelong great Cameron Mooney even suggesting Boyd take a pay cut in order to lure across a free agent.
All these criticisms for what? Accepting a mega deal that any player in his position would take with both hands if given the opportunity
Boyd continued to build, playing in the last seven games of the Dogs’ season. But it wasn't until the finals that Boyd's story wrote its most glorious chapter.
Their premiership journey began in Perth, with a humbling of the Eagles. Boyd didn’t kick a goal, but proved an imposing presence around the ground. He ably supported Jordan Roughead in the ruck while laying five tackles and taking as many marks.
On marched the Dogs to the MCG, where a date with the Hawks awaited. Here, Boyd’s role morphed into pseudo-midfielder. Eighteen touches, four marks and five tackles followed, but it was his around-the-ground work on this particular Friday night that proved so pivotal.
You could sense he was growing in the September spotlight.
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Off to Spotless Stadium then, for a preliminary final against the new kids on the block. This wasn’t Boyd’s best performance of the finals quartet, but it was his gutsiest. With Jordan Roughead forced off with an eye injury early on, and Shane Mumford as opposition, the Dogs needed to find something.
Step up Tom Boyd. Twenty-one hitouts and 14 touches followed, but Boyd’s influence was felt way beyond the stats sheet.
To use a cricket term, he dug in and neutralised the Mumford threat. Without him, the Bulldogs would not have played off for the flag.
Next up were the brutish Sydney Swans – the only opposition that still stood in their quest for a second-ever VFL/AFL premiership.
In truth, this could have been a very different Grand Final for Tom Boyd. Just 20 seconds in, a perfect Bontempelli pass cannoned off Boyd's chest to the ground. It is a testimony to his character that he didn’t drop his head there and then.
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Boyd and Bontempelli were a powerful combination.
The Bontempelli-to-Boyd combination ended more positively in the second quarter, as he kicked his first goal from an acute angle while "the Bont" delivered inside 50 once more. Suddenly Boyd had two goals before half time. He ended up blanketing Kurt Tippett in the ruck while taking a career-high eight marks (including six contested) over the four quarters.
Each grand final has a moment, a particular play that stands out for the eventual winner and one the loser is left to rue. It only seemed fitting that Boyd was its protagonist.
Just over five minutes left. The Bulldogs led by just nine points. They could smell a second-ever premiership but this was the Swans, so there could be no giving in.
The play began with Bulldogs marvel Dale Morris taking down Sydney superstar Lance Franklin in the centre square. He used every last vertebra – broken or otherwise – to bring the ball to ground.
It spilled out to Boyd, who somehow slotted the goal from 65m out. He sensed the moment and took full advantage of it. The cheers that erupted from the MCG could surely have been heard at Whitten Oval, and vice versa.
Bounces of the footy late in grand finals are notorious, but this one held its line and the Dogs led by 15 points. And they were home.
Jason Johannisen ended up winning the Norm Smith Medal but in the big moments, Tom Boyd was the Bulldogs' most important player. The hope from the west side of town is that the 21-year-old will play in many more deciders. Perhaps he’ll be a Norm Smith Medallist before his career is done.
But this was Boyd’s stage, as well as the Bulldogs. A coming-of-age game it certainly was.
Tom Boyd, premiership player. That’s something money can’t buy.