Why Boyd wouldn’t change a thing

TOM Boyd says he wouldn’t change a thing about how his football career turned out.

The former number one draft pick was one of the most talked about footballers during his five-year career due to the fact that he departed the GWS Giants after just one season to join the Western Bulldogs on a massive contract.

Twenty-six-year-old Boyd admits he “genuinely chose to seek out being the best player in the country, to be the first picked” while also admitting that he “sought out taking the second biggest contract in history” at the age of 18.

The move back to Victoria proved a success as Boyd helped the Bulldogs win a drought-breaking premiership in 2016, playing a key role with three goals in the grand final triumph against Sydney in just his 29th game for the club.

Boyd acknowledges he was well compensated during his fledgling playing days, but eventually retired early due to mental health issues.

He said his career was “unique” but has no regrets as to how it ended.

“Unique is a word that gets thrown around a bit when it comes to my career,” he said on SEN’s Whateley.

“I’m extraordinarily grateful. I’m very open and honest that financially I was invited with an enormous opportunity. I think it’s an important thing I need to be authentic about.

“I was also able to be a part of a moment in time and history with regards to the Bulldogs that has affected thousands and thousands of people for years to come.

“This is a club that was long deprived of success and had their fair share of heartache, perhaps too much.

“To be a part of that specific day was incredible. The people that you meet along the way, of course, the things you learn about yourself and others and the way that the industry works are all things that have served me particularly well since I finished.

“I wouldn’t change a single bit of it for the world because obviously it has led to me being where I am today where I’ve got a great complexion of work, a beautiful fiancée, a three-and-a-half-month-old at home.

“Life is really, really good for me now and that’s with no shortage of responsibility placed on my football experience.”

Boyd insists he walked away from the game in a good place and was comfortable with the fact that he did not leave the Dogs in a position of “doom and gloom”.

“I was grateful I was able to be a part of a team that had an enormous impact on the Footscray community and the supporter group more broadly,” he said.

“I walked away from the game in a good place and the club is in a better place than I think it probably ever has been. They’re two things to put in the plus column.

“I’m extraordinarily lucky to have been awarded that contract and financially set myself up. I don’t believe too much in dwelling on the past in the sense that I wish I could change things and it all be better.

“Most of the things that have happened in my life that have turned out to be really good came through many of those struggles.

“At the end of the day, I still walked away in a relatively comfortable position.

“I didn’t leave the game in a position where it was dark, and it was doom and gloom. I’d left in a position where I was happy, and I was certain that the next part of my life was ready to start.

“That’s something that not many players get to say.”

Boyd, who would play a total of 61 AFL games, has recently released a book titled Nowhere To Hide which documents his journey.

– BY ANDREW SLEVISON/ SEN