MVP Tommy Boyd - The Grand Final Enigma

Dec 18, 2015
2,697
4,849
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Arizona Cardinals
I'm over the money and just interested to see him play at this point. Shove him in the VFL for a few weeks but make sure someone kidnaps and gags bloody purple for the duration. Bloody poisonous snake...


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

AJARWA

All Australian
Mar 2, 2012
675
854
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
I'd just like to see him get some continuancy in his game and take it from there.
I think we all would. Hopefully this week is the first step. I think it's fair to say the expectations on Boyd seem to have dropped substantially since his arrival and the GF, and with the progression of Naughton, English and Schache... he may benefit in a big way from that pressure being lifted.
 
I think we all would. Hopefully this week is the first step. I think it's fair to say the expectations on Boyd seem to have dropped substantially since his arrival and the GF, and with the progression of Naughton, English and Schache... he may benefit in a big way from that pressure being lifted.
We've spent 30 years waiting for 'the great white hope' of a KPF to finally fill the void, Boyd no doubt ad to deal with that unique pressure no other club would have provided.

The irony after the monster contract to Boyd (pick 1) and then snaffling Schache (pick 2) is that a KPD with poor footskills from WA somehow comes 4th in the B&F in his debut year, spends all pre-season in defence and is now the best prospect in the F50 we've had for 3 decades. As a teenager.
 

AJARWA

All Australian
Mar 2, 2012
675
854
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
We've spent 30 years waiting for 'the great white hope' of a KPF to finally fill the void, Boyd no doubt ad to deal with that unique pressure no other club would have provided.

The irony after the monster contract to Boyd (pick 1) and then snaffling Schache (pick 2) is that a KPD with poor footskills from WA somehow comes 4th in the B&F in his debut year, spends all pre-season in defence and is now the best prospect in the F50 we've had for 3 decades. As a teenager.
And Naughton seems to thrive on the pressure and expectation. In a similar way to the Bont.
 
Bevo said that Boyd will be on restricted mins and play mainly as a forward
No surprise, I'd imagine it will take him weeks to get to match fitness. After such a long layoff the last thing we want to do is rush him and risk re-injury
 

AJARWA

All Australian
Mar 2, 2012
675
854
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Bevo said that Boyd will be on restricted mins and play mainly as a forward
I've wondered regularly if the burden of having to carry the ruck load in his formative years has contributed to his back issues. Although it seems clear he's not mobile enough to play permanent forward, needs to provide ruck relief.
 
I've wondered regularly if the burden of having to carry the ruck load in his formative years has contributed to his back issues. Although it seems clear he's not mobile enough to play permanent forward, needs to provide ruck relief.
Helps with the 6-6-6 rule in the VFL so we can play him primary out of the goal square atm
 

BRWB

Brownlow Medallist
10k Posts The Cult of Robbo
Oct 7, 2012
15,839
24,196
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
You don't seem to understand that Boyd is in no way obligated to take a pay cut and we have absolutely no right to even suggest it to him. A contract is a contract. It was a gamble that either did or didn't pay off, depending on who you ask, but there's not a thing we can do about it now so it's not worth discussing or being concerned about.

Starting to reconsider your views Chuckles?

Thanks for that one game Tom.

End thread.
 
Sep 7, 2015
15,619
35,937
AFL Club
Tasmania
Starting to reconsider your views Chuckles?

Thanks for that one game Tom.

End thread.

Are you literally brain-dead? What about Tom choosing to retire contradicts anything that I said? Please quote where I was wrong.

You do understand that Tom retiring is not even close to the same thing as us making him take a pay cut, yeah? I explicitly said that a player and club can mutually agree to end a contract which is exactly what is happening here. I'm still 100% correct.
 
Last edited:
Mar 15, 2012
10,877
25,705
Melbourne
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Footscray, Melbourne City
Sadly, the media hounds who hounded Tom Boyd appear to have got what they have been working towards since his trade and contract terms were announced.

Hope you can move on from here Tom and find plenty of other things in life to be happy about than football.

Nobody can ever take September and October 2016 away from you. Thanks and all the best.
 

BRWB

Brownlow Medallist
10k Posts The Cult of Robbo
Oct 7, 2012
15,839
24,196
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
You will need to find a new player to obsess over BRWB 🙂

Cheers mate....any suggestions?

Just thought people were a bit overly confident and positive about Tom. Wasnt attacking tom more just challenging what i thought were unrealistic views of a few here.


Pumped I was totally wrong for that one day though.


Sad to be right about Tommy overall.

All good wish him all the best. Forever grateful and dont regret the decision to roll the dice to get him.

Inexusable if we did it again now we have our flag.
 
"If its mutually agreed on by both parties a contract can be terminated"... exactly my point. I don't think anyone is suggesting that an appropriate action would be for the club to be the party who breaks contract and get into a legal and pr battle with Tom and his manager. In any event there would have to be a clause in the contract which allows the club to take that avenue.

I'm not so sure that it's "very unlikely" Tom would choose to retire early, particularly if the back issues continue or mental health raises its head again. He has a premiership, nearly a norm smith and publicly stated he's seeking an identity outside of football. All the news I've read on Tom's contract is that it was front loaded, so he's also cashed up.

It's all a bit presumptuous at this point but I do hope the club is looking at all its options in case the situation doesn't improve by end of year.
There has been some useful discussion of retirement scenarios over the 8000-odd posts here.

AJARWA's post above was pretty spot on and some around it have been very topical too.

If we believe today's press release - and there's no reason not to at this point - it was Tom going to the club asking to terminate the contract, not the other way around. I haven't read any suggestion that it was otherwise but I'm sure somebody's going to try that line before long.

We have been led to believe that his contract was front-ended so I'll take that at face value too. Therefore we are unlikely to have $2m+ of salary cap space over the next two years cleared by Boyd's retirement. It should be more like $1m, perhaps up to about $1.5m - but still a pretty handy amount. (Aaron Naughton might be having some stern words with his manager right now.)

If it's as stated, then Tom has done the right thing by the club and his own well-being in turning his back on a hefty residual in his contract, but the fact remains he will have received something close to $5m so far - over 80% IINM. Since it comes out of guaranteed AFL disbursements anyway it has been a good deal for both sides, as the Boyd coup was a key in our club recovering emotionally from the Griffen/Macca crisis of 2014 and of course Tom was a vital player in helping us win the 2016 flag.

This does leave us in a pretty good space:
  • an extra $500k (or more) per year is freed up under the salary cap for the next 2 years - it may set us up for another raid, or at least help us defend our list from raiders at the back door
  • an extra list spot just before the MSD, assuming we want to use it
  • a fairly tidy and bloodless conclusion to what was starting to look like an awkward and intractable situation regarding a high-profile player on a much talked about / frequently criticised contract. Bevo's recent comment about Boyd being months/many weeks away from being ready for a call-up were an ominous hint that things weren't looking too good
  • removal of any trace of players or contracts being "in the shadow of" the Boyd deal, although I think that one was more of an issue in the earlier years - in any case Sam Power is free to put much more of his own imprint on this list from here on.
  • Bevo is too, for that matter - he arrived just days or weeks after Tom did.
  • one less elephant in the room for gutter journos to make trouble with, and an opportunity to put behind us a certain amount of unsubstantiated innuendo, although I have an uneasy feeling that after a respectful pause of a few days one of them is going to try to milk it one more time ...
So once again, thanks Tom for what you gave , especially in 2016, and for the clean break it appears you've made. Thanks also for the gracious words of appreciation to those at the club who've rallied when you've been down. It may shut up a few potential critics both within and outside the supporter base.

All the best with whatever your next pursuit is. And may all the dogs in your life be Red, White and Blue ones.
 
Mar 15, 2012
10,877
25,705
Melbourne
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Footscray, Melbourne City
If we believe today's press release - and there's no reason not to at this point - it was Tom going to the club asking to terminate the contract, not the other way around. I haven't read any suggestion that it was otherwise but I'm sure somebody's going to try that line before long.
Given the timing, the upcoming mid-season draft may well have had something to do with the announcement being this week and not in say a month's time.
The timing of Shaun Grigg's retirement announcement has already been reported to be related to creating an opportunity for another player via the mid-season draft and I'd be very surprised if our club didn't mention the same opportunity for another player at some point in the discussion.
 

Doggy

Brownlow Medallist
May 20, 2006
14,735
12,059
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Given the timing, the upcoming mid-season draft may well have had something to do with the announcement being this week and not in say a month's time.
The timing of Shaun Grigg's retirement announcement has already been reported to be related to creating an opportunity for another player via the mid-season draft and I'd be very surprised if our club didn't mention the same opportunity for another player at some point in the discussion.
If we did take 2 one must be a KPP
 

Rookie

Premiership Player
May 12, 2004
3,100
1,883
Globetrotting
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Go in peace Tommy, and prosper. Thanks for what you brought to the club, I'm glad you graced us with your glorious hair and your freakish ability, which we saw rarely but at just the right time.

Of my frankly huge fridge magnet collection, which I've amassed by traveling the world instead of bunkering down for a normal adulthood, Tommy's 2016 premiership magnet will always stand next to Clay Smith as representations of the major life event that didn't happen on foreign shores. The best moment I ever had in my country.

He was a class act, and I'll never forget my quick and hilarious chat with him at the VFL prelim in 2016.

Contract was front loaded no doubt, which I'm sure made his decision easier. May he find happiness!
 

Waca Jr

Premiership Player
Mar 6, 2018
4,353
15,416
AFL Club
Richmond
I come in peace. Just wanted to say his 2016 GF was/is one of the best perfo of a KPF i have ever seen. Should have won the norm smith. It is a real shame that injury bith physical and mental have cut short his career. Wouldnt help having keyboard warriors giving him s**t. I hope he finds peace with himself and sorts out his life post football and hopefully you guys can unearth another gem. If there is one lesson to be learnt from mental illness it is to be kind to one another as you don't know wjat they may be going through personally. Good luck for the rest of the year.
 
Back