Anthony Seibold makes passionate plea for critics to lay off skipper Darius Boyd
Brisbane coach Anthony Seibold has made a passionate plea for critics to lay off skipper Darius Boyd, pointing out Roosters playmaker Luke Keary as a measuring stick for his captain.
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Broncos coach Anthony Seibold is fed-up with “relentless” attacks on Darius Boyd and has come out swinging in defence of his besieged skipper ahead of Friday night’s blockbuster against Penrith at Suncorp Stadium.
Boyd’s offensive game has come under fire since his move from fullback to five-eighth six weeks ago, with the captain making just one run for two metres in Brisbane’s 18-14 derby defeat of the Cowboys last week.
In the past fortnight, Boyd has made two runs for seven metres in the famous No.6 jumper once worn by Broncos legend Darren Lockyer, who has urged the 32-year-old to attack the line.
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Now Boyd faces another daunting assignment with the five-eighth convert to oppose one of the code’s most experienced pivots on Friday night in Penrith’s NSW Origin match-winner James Maloney.
Seibold has had a gutful of the criticism directed at Boyd, justifying his meagre runs by hinting at the attacking efforts of Roosters five-eighth Luke Keary, who made one run for four metres against Canberra last week.
“Everyone needs to back off on Darius,” Seibold fired.
“If there’s opportunities to run the footy, he will, but I will say this – Darius for whatever reason seems to be an easy target.
“I had a look through the competition from last weekend.
“There is an Australian No.6 (Keary) playing for a team in Sydney who only made four metres last week and he missed five tackles and not one thing was said in the media.
“His team won and our team won.
“Because Darius has only done one run, he’s been crucified all week from what I understand.”
Since undertaking the biggest positional shift of his career, interchanging with new fullback Anthony Milford, Boyd has lost one of six games at five-eighth.
Seibold accepts the Boyd-Jake Turpin scrumbase alliance needs polish but the union was only ever a tactical stop-gap measure, with hooker Turpin operating as a makeshift No.7 after halfbacks Tom Dearden and Sean O’Sullivan suffered injuries.
Turpin has since performed admirably, scoring the match-winner against the Cowboys last week, but Seibold said critics of Boyd were misinterpreting his role in the play-making spine.
“Darius’ job is to organise our team,” he said.
“He is not an Anthony Milford who is going to take the line on. He is a leader and he has been getting better and better (at five-eighth).
“The reality is we have a hooker playing halfback and a fullback at six. That’s where I think they are best suited for our team at the moment.
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“Yes we were a bit frantic at certain times of that (Cowboys) game but our defence was outstanding. We missed 10 tackles and didn’t concede a line break.
“It’s been really challenging for them (Boyd and Turpin). Essentially they had two sessions to make the change from their respective positions.
“Ideally, you do it in the pre-season and give the guys some time to adapt but we have only lost one game from our last six (with Boyd and Turpin in the halves), so most teams will take that.”
Originally published as Anthony Seibold makes passionate plea for critics to lay off skipper Darius Boyd
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