Mike Colman: Broken Darius Boyd channelling Elvis and Ali

For all his stunning achievements throughout his career, Darius Boyd is limping towards the end. Let’s hope it’s not his final season blooper tape we remember in retirement, writes Mike Colman.

Darius Boyd looks to have played one season too many. Picture: Ian Hitchcock

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Darius Boyd reminds me of Muhammad Ali. Not the ‘float like a butterfly-sting like a bee’ Ali Shuffle version.

The one that got belted by Larry Holmes version.

There’s a bit of Elvis in there too.

Not Jailhouse Rock Elvis. Cheeseburger Elvis.

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Darius Boyd looks to have played one season too many. Picture: Ian Hitchcock

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No don’t get me wrong. I love Ali. Love Elvis too, but for all the pleasure they gave me at their peak; for all the exquisite skills and physical perfection of their glory days, I can’t get those images of their final performances out of my memory banks.

It’s not how I want to remember them of course. I want to hear Ali’s name and visualise him befuddling Sonny Liston in their first fight, snapping off that rat-a-tat jab into The Big Bear’s face, then leaving him swiping at nothing but air as he ghosts out of range.

I want to visualise Elvis in black leather, playing the guitar on the ’68 Comeback Special, or better still, wearing that white suit and belting out ‘If I Can Dream’.

Boyd’s efforts have come under criticism all season. Picture: Jono Searle

But sadly, that’s not how it is. No matter how much I try to block it out I can’t forget Ali, legs and arms as heavy as lead, getting backed up against the ropes and thumped at will by Trevor Berbick, or Elvis, bloated and sweating rivers, stumbling over the words of ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight’.

That’s what happens when you hang on too long.

Now I’m not saying that Darius Boyd was an Ali or an Elvis, but he wasn’t always the player we’re seeing right now either.

This was a bloke who scored two tries in his Origin debut, won premierships at two clubs, was a major part of the most dominant Maroons team in history and won the 2010 Dally M Fullback of the Year award.

Boyd’s career highlights may be tainted by his final seasons.

When I hear the name Darius Boyd I want to remember that fluid burst into the backline, the short-armed punchy pass to set up his outside man or the dummy and charge for the line. The confident strut around the backfield, the white-mouthguard smile in the in-goal after he scored.

Instead these days the image I can’t get out of my head is the mental blooper tape of his embarrassing defensive errors this season.

There was the one where he bought a dummy before it was thrown; the one where he charged out of the line and slipped over, and the one where instead of attempting the tackle he turned to the ref and started waving his arms.

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To say nothing of the one where he came across in cover so slowly that the tryscorer was back at the halfway by the time he arrived.

It got so bad that one of the biggest talking points in the TV coverage of the Broncos-Cowboys horror show on Thursday wasn’t that he had missed a tackle but that he had actually made one.

And that’s not even mentioning his attack because, quite frankly, there isn’t any to mention.

Now there is no getting around the fact that the Broncos are having a terrible season, but Boyd is actually having a worse one – made all the more obvious because he was once a seriously good player.

One who deserves to be remembered that way.

Darius, we all know you’ve still the option of playing another two seasons on big money but you’ve also got four weeks in which you can announce your retirement, do no further damage to your legacy and still get to be part of the farewell motorcade at the Grand Final.

Remember what your mentor Wayne Bennett has always said: it’s better to go a year too early than a year too late.

Let’s just hope you haven’t already left it too long.