2024 Practice Match Carlton vs Melbourne

[LP]

Plus it must be remembered, regardless of his age, he's only played sixteen games as a senior player! A work in progress and definitely improving.

Yep, there is clearly something there to work with, in the absence of the brute strength brick craphouse build Boyd's current game style is reminding me of a young Des English.

Early on Des would shank kicks, was always a great intercept but not terrific at hitting targets, he would unload a lot of 60m kicks to nobody or OTF but could lock down anybody. By his 3rd season Des became ultra reliable ball user. For me this ~50 game mark is when the panic subsides and players become more composed, it makes a difference.

It's interesting, because current fan criticisms on Boyd are not dissimilar to the early career criticisms of Saad, I suspect it's part of the small defender role, being judged by your errors rather than successes.

Finally, some players wear more of or all of the sh!zen jobs from the coach, the last line stuff, the minding three opponents stuff while your team mates charge off up the field, fans rarely take that into account when judging a player. That role isn't about winning every contest, it's about minimising the losses.