FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.
Problem is only two of those five played yesterday, and of those two one is a shadow of his former self and the other is a second year player who quite fankly shouldn't have to bel shouldered with that sort of responsibility.
Boyd is better than what he showed yesterday. A lot better.
Funnily enough, I commented last year on Boyd's poor disposal, and was shot down. It really irked me to read him saying he wasn't going to lose sleep over it - bloody hell, you're the captain, giving the ball back to the opposition frequently, and you think you can improve it "a bit"? Far out, we're in for a long year. As has been stated, for someone in his position, he's awfully good at not taking responsibility for his weaknesses.
[B][COLOR="#0000CD"]Our club was born in blood and boots, not in AFL focus groups.[/COLOR][/B]
Keep at it Matty! You'll get it eventually. Only been 25 years since your first kick, still time to get it right.
What. A. Joke.
On any given week I'm amazed at the number of AFL players that lack one or more of the fundamental skills to play the game. How do they get this far? Or is the talent pool that shallow?
FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.
In the words of Dirty Harry, "a man's got to know his limitations".
This is the one thing that infuriates me with regard to Boyd. He does so many things wonderfully well but his ambitions exceed his talent level when it comes to disposal by foot - he is not Buckley, or Jarman, or Gilbee and he never will be. Cross is actually a better distributor by foot than Boyd because he works within his limitations - actually Crossy doesn't trust his foot skills anywhere near enough but that's a topic for another day. Tom Liberatore has much better disposal by foot that Boyd, likewise does Jobe Watson. They weight their kicks to give the oncoming player the best chance to run onto the ball. Boyd more often than not tries to spear a 'perfect' pass that invariably ends up being anything but perfect. Because he is such a warrior and a tireless worker on the training track and in matches, he almost bristles at any suggestion that he has this deficiency that hurts his team.
If Boyd hit 50% of his targets he would be borderline elite..
His average effective disposals in 2011 was 62%, so he is elite based on your criteria.
For comparison with highest possession gatherers, Judd is at 67%, Josh Kennedy 62%, Priddis 62%, Swan 69% and the best is Pendulbury at 78%.
Had a bad day on Sunday with 53% effective.
Facts speak for them selves, not perception or memory of a couple of clangers.
FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.
This discussion has deja vu written all over it.
We really need to break down Boyd's effective stats in particular those taken by foot.
To gauge what many on here are often referring to re Boyd and his ineffective disposal there would need to be a statistical measurement which assesses the number of times a disposal by foot should've in most instances been effective but ended up being ineffective (not necessarily a turnover or clanger), if that makes sense.