Darius at peace for final run
The Broncos will lose the last link to their 2006 premiership when Gold Coast product Darius Boyd plays his final match on Thursday night. TRAVIS MEYN and PETER BADEL report:
DARIUS Boyd’s farewell season has not been what fairytales are supposed to be – but he is at peace with that.
Boyd will run on to Suncorp Stadium on Thursday night for his 337th and final NRL game when the Brisbane Broncos take on the North Queensland Cowboys.
A loss for the Broncos will see Brisbane finish with only three wins for the season and the club collect its first wooden spoon in 32 years following the sacking of coach Anthony Seibold.
In the early years of his 15-season NRL career, Boyd would not have coped with the struggles the Broncos have endured in 2020.
But in the only interview ahead of his final game, Boyd said he was OK with the finale to his glittering career.
“My head space is in a really good spot,” Boyd said.
“A few years ago, before I took myself into a mental health clinic and sorted myself out by getting some help, it would have been tough.
“I’ve learnt a lot about what’s important. I obviously want to win and do the best I can every week, but losing a game of footy or not playing your best individually or as a team doesn’t make you a bad person.
“I’ve learnt to put a lot of love and trust in my family and friends and make sure I keep doing my best job every week as a footy player. “That’s what life is all about. I had it the wrong way around for a long time.
“I had rugby league as number one in my life and my family and f r i e n d s number two. “I had to change that and I did. I couldn’t be happier with my family, daughters (Willow and Romi), Kayla (wife) and the close friends in my life.
“All the people that have supported me over the years and the friendships I’ve made is what I’m proud of.“
THE LAST LINK
BOYD’S life could have easily gone in a different direction.
He has never known the identity of his father and was introduced to contact sport by a former partner of his mother, Rochelle, who Boyd has had a difficult relationship with.
Growing up in Beaudesert and the Gold Coast, Boyd briefly dabbled in rugby union as a child before converting to the 13-man code because he wanted to tackle more.
He wasn’t a schoolboys standout at Palm Beach Currumbin State High but did enough to catch the eye of late Broncos scout Cyril Connell, who handed him a scholarship with no guarantees.
“He was the last of Cyril Connell’s recruits,” said former Broncos coach Wayne
Bennett, who coached Boyd for 13 years.
“All the scouts saw him as a 16-year-old and no one wanted him. Cyril was the only one who saw something in him.
“He said ‘Wayne, persevere with this kid, he’s got something’. Cyril would be so proud of what Darius has become.”
Boyd made his NRL debut on the wing for the Broncos as an 18-year-old in Round 1 of the 2006 season at Suncorp Stadium, scoring Brisbane’s only try in a 36-4 loss to the Cowboys.
He has scored another 85 NRL tries since.
He went on to play all 27 games for the Broncos that season, culminating in the grand final win against the Melbourne Storm, which remains Brisbane’s sixth and last NRL title.
Now 33, Boyd is the last player left from that premiership team and at full time tonight an era will officially come to an end.
“I was lucky to be part of it,” Boyd said.
“I had such quality players around me like Darren Lockyer, Petero Civoniceva, Shane Webcke, Brad Thorn, Tonie Carroll, there’s a whole list.
“I was a lucky young kid to come into that team.
“I was grateful to Wayne for giving me the opportunity to play in the team and continue on to the grand final.
“I didn’t realise what we had achieved until later years when you find out how hard it is to win premierships.”
Boyd followed Bennett to St George Illawarra in 2009 and helped the Dragons
clinch the 2010 NRL premiership in which he collected the Clive Churchill Medal as the best player on the field in the grand final win against the Roosters.
The 2006 and 2010 premierships remain Boyd’s greatest memories in the NRL.
“Premierships are the highlight,” he said.
“The individual accolades are great but it’s a team sport and it’s very hard to win a comp.
“To do it with the guys you see for 11 months of a year, you need a lot of luck with injuries, form, Origin and other things.
“Winning premierships is definitely the highlight.”
THE RECORDS
BOYD will move past Brad Fittler and John Sutton (336 games) on Thursday night when the Broncos play North Queensland to become the outright ninth most-capped player in league history.
He will finish with 206 games for the Broncos (2006-08 and 2015-20), 69 for the Dragons (2009-11) and 62 for the Newcastle Knights (2012-14).
But his career, and life, has not been without challenges.
In 2014, Boyd admitted himself to a mental health clinic and was diagnosed with a form of depression.
He emerged a better person and player and returned to the Broncos with Bennett in 2015, helping Brisbane make the 2015 NRL grand final, where they lost to North Queensland.
Boyd’s appointment as Broncos captain in 2017 capped a remarkable career resurrection.
“We all know about the offfield things that happened in Darius’ life,” Lockyer said.
“He was close to being lost to the game and if he was, who knows where he would be right now, but he got through it and became a father.
“He has become well travelled in life, he has learned a hell of a lot.”
Boyd has shown incredible consistency throughout his career and at one stage kept rugby league legend Billy Slater out of Queensland’s No.1 jersey.
He has never been the fastest or strongest player in the game, but Lockyer said it was Boyd’s other traits that stood out.
“I used to love the way Darius ran the ball back, he would pick out the biggest bloke in the line and try to run over them,” Lockyer said.
“He was always very courageous. In the early years, he was an aggressive runner and then as he got older, he developed a passing game.
“He was physical, he read the game well, he was skilful, he was a superb athlete.
“When I saw a guy like Karmichael Hunt and Darius charging back into the line, it lifted the whole team.
“Darius was always very brave as a player.
“I just knew as a teammate he wouldn’t let you down, he would do his job.
“In 2010, he was electric, he was one of the best players in the game at that point.”
Boyd made 28 State of Origin appearances for Queensland during the Maroons’ decade of dominance from 2008-17.
He scored 17 tries for his state, many on the back of his brilliant combination with Greg Inglis.
But his Kangaroos career remains a standout thanks to one stunning record.
Boyd never tasted defeat in 23 Tests for Australia – a record in the international arena.
“I never dreamt of playing for those teams,” Boyd said.
“I’m so grateful to have got there and met those people and have close friendships from those teams.
“I was lucky to play through a really good era in the Queensland and Australian teams and have some great coaches.”
THE FINALE
BOYD was reluctant to talk about the final game of his career.
The Broncos have suffered through the most tumultuous season in their history and he would rather slip into retirement, and out of the NRL’s COVID bubble, without any fanfare.
Boyd’s form at times over the past two years has been criticised and he was controversially stripped of the captaincy he held for three years by Seibold after the 2019 season.
The 2020 season has been an utter disaster for the Broncos but Boyd remains grateful for what rugby league has given him, pregnant wife Kayla and their two daughters Willow and Romi.
“This year has definitely been challenging but it’s been challenging for everyone in the community and society in general, not just rugby league,” he said.