Quote: the flying biscuit "to be fair Boyd was never banned for drug taking or sent home from his national team in disgrace.( I know what Hock did). so in that aspect chalk and cheese.
But your right in Australia today the subject of Les Boyd still brings out the haters, just the same as us talking about Hock.
I remember reading a piece earlier in the year where he was critical of the modern game. and people posted comments calling him a thug and a dinosaur. All this while they are watching a game with chicken wing tackles cannonball tackles James graham biting ears in a grand final, and not to mention pages upon pages of off field scandals and widespread doping. If people don't like a player they don't like a player they wont change.
Boyd was exemplary for Warrington RLFC on and off the field (except for the odd ten minute in the bin) if Gaz Hock can do that for Hull or wherever then fair do's. But he'll still be a scrote to me.'"
The issue with Boyd is that despite the Aussie hardman image, Australian rugby league is a fair bit more 'politically correct' about behaviour than our league is.
Boyd got a 12 month ban for elbowing Daryl Brohman in the face in State of Origin, which was a pretty big sentence, although you can youtube the 'tackle' and it was disgraceful, Boyd didn't even try to tackle him, he just smacked him with the elbow, and when a guy with Boyd's immense physical strength does that it's probably a potentially fatal assault. Boyd got so much notoriety because of sympathy for Brohman and the extent of his injuries. That was Brohman's Origin debut and he had to go off injured because his jaw was smashed to pieces, he never played representative level again.
So Boyd was the Eric Cantona/Luis Suarez type figure with a lengthy ban, and when he came back, he was three games in to his comeback and he eye gouged someone, which is pretty much a crime beyond the pale for any RL player and so he was shunned in the Aussie game.
As you say, Boyd then came to Warrington and apart from the odd fight and sin bin he behaved himself, just like Morley who had a chequered discipline record at Leeds and Sydney Roosters, was impeccable for us.
But you can see why Boyd was shunned in the Aussie game the way he was, because he was the hardest man in rugby league and probably one of the strongest players the game has seen, and if he is going round eggshelling players jaws with his elbow and then sticking his fingers in to players eyes it is going to make the game's officials seriously worried about the danger he poses to other players' health.
