Rugby league hard man Les Boyd reflects on his controversial career
Former rugby league hard man Les Boyd is more impressed with the women’s game than the NRL, saying clubs and individuals have become too robotic.
He stands among the cattle and sheep atop Stockinbingal Hill, overlooking the drought-stricken yet picturesque Cootamundra Valley.
A once notorious rugby league player is now a gentle figure working contentedly alone on his 250-acre farm 8km outside his home town of Cootamundra.
The volatile days from a celebrated career are long gone. Today’s Les Boyd is calm, unassuming, comfortable and retired.
Now 62, he owns a beautifully manicured home in Cootamundra with wife Judy, just a 100m walk from Bradman’s birthplace museum.
But he disappears most days into his white Toyota LandCruiser for a 10-minute journey to Stockinbingal Hill, situated inside the farm he proudly showcases to the visiting Daily Telegraph.
MORE NRL NEWS:
FITTLER’S CHALLENGE TO RISING NRL STAR
BLUES’ STATE-OF-THE-ART NEW HOME
He lives with his past on-field indiscretions — incidents he cannot escape, even now.
There was the 12-month suspension in 1983 for breaking the jaw of Queensland forward Darryl Brohman, followed by a 15-month ban a year later for eye-gouging Canterbury’s Billy Johnstone.
Boyd was rubbed out of Australian rugby league.
But infamous is now ingenuous.
Quietly spoken, articulate and warm, Boyd knows he has a rap sheet and is aware his recklessness and hostility may be remembered more than a 17-Test career based on power, speed and hostility.
He repeatedly states: “I can’t turn back time.”
THE FARM
This is his haven, where he one day hopes to build a new home.
“It’s my hobby on the side,” Boyd said. “I ran about 40 cattle and 150 ewes. I have 250 acres.
“I go up just about every day for a couple of hours. It’s a release for me, I just relax.
“I do what I want to do. I feed the cattle and stock and do a bit of sheep work. It’s nice up there.
“I just sold off 30-something cattle because of the drought situation. It was just getting too hard to feed them because it’s hard to buy feed and it’s expensive.
“The sheep aren’t as hard to feed. I sell off the lambs. I run fat lambs, basically.
I have a good life. I have a good family, a good wife, two good kids and four grandchildren.
“They all live here in Cootamundra, which is great. I get on really well with the town. They even named the local oval after me.
“I’ve just come back from a month of fishing in Darwin. I like my fishing and shooting and my wife always has a list of chores for me.
“I worked for Tooheys for 23 years. It was good job.”
NRL TODAY
A rough and tough forward, Boyd is more impressed with the women’s game than the NRL.
“I don’t like the game at the moment,’’ he said. “I don’t follow it a lot.
“On a Friday night I will watch but I flick between it and the Aussie rules. I don’t mind the AFL.
“A lot of one-on-one contests are gone, when you have two front-rowers having a go at each other, like (Paul) Harragon and (Mark) Carroll.
“A lot of players all play the same style, a lot of clubs play the same style.
“I never thought I would say this in my life but I sometimes think the women’s game isn’t too bad to watch.
“They play football like it should be. They run hard, tackle hard. They may be a little limited in the skills with the ball but that will come.
“They don’t have the crowding and holding down in rucks. They play a more pure game than the men.”
BROHMAN
A right elbow in game one of the 1983 State of Origin series forever changed the lives of Boyd and Brohman.
“I never meant to do it,’’ Boyd said. “You never really want to hurt anyone.
“I knew straight away it hurt him. I didn’t get into trouble for that incident (on the field). “About five minutes later I got 10 minutes in the sin-bin off (referee Barry) Gomersall for something else, a fight or a scuffle.
“I ran into the Queensland dressing shed — I knew he had been taken there and the sheds were alongside each other — to say sorry and that I didn’t meant to do that. I apologised because he was hurt.
“I think it was his father, he started abusing me before I said much. So I basically said ‘get f---ed’ and walked out.
“But what happened wasn’t something I wanted to happen. But I can’t take things back. Once it’s done, it’s done.”
THE FALLOUT
Brohman sued Boyd over the elbow incident but the matter was settled out of court for reported $30,000.
In 2013, Brohman said: “He doesn’t like me and I don’t like him.”
Boyd retains a healthy dislike for Brohman. Asked would he shake hands if he saw Brohman, Boyd said: “No. I wouldn’t shake his hand.
“A few things have happened over the years, a couple of articles, and he sued me, which was fine, that’s part of life.
“But there have been a couple of things said. I wouldn’t shake his hand, no.”
BILLY JOHNSTONE
Just three games back from the Brohman suspension, Boyd eye-gouged Johnstone at Brookvale Oval.
The ensuing suspension meant Boyd never again played top-level football in Australia.
“I deserved everything I got there,’’ he said. “It was more frustration.
“I had only been back for a few games. (Manly coach) Bobby Fulton brought me straight back into first grade two games before that after a 12-month suspension.
“I was copping a bit of shit off people and I knew that I couldn’t retaliate too much.
“That was my fault. I did do a stupid thing. I deserved everything I got that time.”
RUBBED OUT
Was it a witch-hunt or warranted?
“I know I made a couple of powerful enemies in the game through being outspoken and hot-headed,” Boyd said.
“I was the first person to get cited by video. I was also the second.
“There was an agenda within the game to … I had said a couple of things that I shouldn’t have said that didn’t sit well with some people. There was a concerted effort to make an example.
“But that’s part of my career, it is part of history, I can’t do much about it.
“All I can do is live with what happened. I can’t change what happened. I would if I could.
“I never meant to hurt anyone. I would go back and change that if I could. But what happened, happened. I just have to put up with it.
“It’s part of my DNA, I suppose. Everyone talks about it and I always get people mentioning it.
“I often get people come up to me — I got painted as a person who was a bit mad — and they often say: ‘You’re not as mad as I thought you would be’.
“I can’t take things back. If I could, there are some things I would change, definitely.
“I was competitive. I wasn’t silly off the field but sometimes I think I was silly on the field.
“Being so competitive, I don’t know where it came from. I know when I was young I did some silly things I wished I hadn’t.”
LEGACY
How will Boyd be remembered for his time with Wests and Manly?
“I’m probably remembered more for my suspensions,’’ he said.
“If I hadn’t been suspended, I could have gone on and played for a few more years and more Tests and been remembered for that.
“But what happened isn’t the most important thing is my life. It’s what is going to happen tomorrow.
“I was only 27 when I finished in Sydney. I wasn’t very old. I then went to England for five years and got sent off once. I probably changed my style and game.
“I look back and think I didn’t do as well as I could have. I know I did well. Anyone that can play for Australia did well. Probably at the time you don’t realise what you are doing.
“When you sit back and reflect on what you did you realise what you could have done. I was very lazy and probably unfit for 99 per cent of my career. I wished I had the foresight to put a bit more effort in to being a good trainer and getting fit.
“I probably could have been a lot better than I was. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I knew I hadn’t done as well as I could have. But I had a very enjoyable career, the game was good to me.”
FIBROS AND SILVERTAILS
Boyd left the battling Magpies in 1980 for fierce rivals Manly and the reason was simple.
“Money, basically,’’ he said. “I got married in 1978 and Manly came along.
“I wanted to stay at Wests, who offered me about $17,000 a year, which was massive money for them. That was the best they could do.
“Manly offered me $40,000 plus $1000 a game. It was a big difference in salary for a young bloke who was just starting a family.
“I also knew a lot of the Manly players from the 1978 Kangaroo tour.
“I rang Roy (Masters, then Wests coach) and told him. He said he respected the decision.
“I told him what I had been offered. Wests did come up with $17,000 and I said if they could get within $10,000 I would stay. They just couldn’t come up with the money.
“That was just the situation with Wests in those days. They weren’t a very wealthy club. I was willing to sacrifice a fair bit to stay at Wests but, in the end, I went to Manly.”
Asked about Wests’ infamous pre-game face slapping, Boyd said: “I always made a beeline for (lock) Graeme O’Grady.
“When the face slapping started we pretended to hit each other because you didn’t want to get (John) ‘Dallas’ Donnelly or one of the big blokes because they did belt you.
“I was a bit smart and didn’t grab anyone who was a bit too serious.”
Every Test, ODI & T20I live, ad-break free during play and in 4K. Only on Foxtel. SIGN UP TODAY!
Join the conversation
Future NRL stars dazzle in Australian Schoolboys domination
A Greg Inglis clone who needs to ‘work out the talent he’s got’ and a Dragons wrecking ball were at the fore of the Australian Schoolboys 50-point demolition job. Discover every standout performer.
Read more
Panthers slammed over ‘pathetic’ move
The Penrith Panthers are the all-conquering NRL champions but the club has abandoned their bid to claim the one trophy that’s eluded them.
Read more