Carlton’s Jordan Boyd on his development from Spotswood to AFL
Jordan Boyd has gone from the superboot in Spotswood’s reserves side to one of the most reliable kicks in the AFL. TIM MICHELL finds out how the rising Carlton star charted an unusual path to the top level.
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The drive from Spotswood’s Donald McLean Reserve to Princes Park spans about 13km.
Jordan Boyd’s progression from suburban reserves footballer in the Western Region Football League to one of Carlton’s defensive linchpins took in a few detours though.
In 2016, Boyd was splitting his time playing with mates in Spotswood’s reserves and under-19 sides.
Some weeks, he played in both teams when the reserves were short.
As he has described it, he couldn’t have been further from the bright lights of the AFL.
“His ability to kick the ball 60m and find a target down the ground, not everyone can do that,” Boyd’s Spotswood coach Anthony Eames said.
“But he did it repeatedly at a young age. (He) had a lot to work on by the way. Particularly with his fitness and his ability to cover the ground.
“But he had great speed, he was a good tackler and again, his balance and ability to read the play I thought just stood out.
“The following year was the first year that he did a pre-season and he went to another level. I always thought, ‘if we get this kid on a list somewhere he is going to be one’.”
Boyd recalls: “Two games a weekend, which was great fun. And the (reserves) coach always let me do torps out of the middle, which I loved.”
Spotswood officials spent years pushing Boyd’s case to VFL clubs after the now 25-year-old committed full-time to football.
Until then, he was living the life of many community sportsmen and women, where their appearance at football pre-season is often dictated by summer sporting commitments.
“He was certainly not a hard trainer and he was just coming along just to have a game of footy with no obvious aspirations to do anything with his footy,” Spotswood’s longtime football manager Tony Walshe said.
“Then he moved into the open age and he was playing in the reserves, still not very fit.
“But he was taking the kick-outs and he was just hitting targets every time and roosting the ball a long way.”
Boyd was an opening bowler in the lower grades for Gellibrand, a cricket club based in Newport in Melbourne’s inner west.
“I opened the bowling but could never take wickets which was a bit of a running joke at that club,” he said.
Boyd’s “wake-up call”, as Eames describes it, came midway through the 2018 season when he opted to go to a musical festival instead of playing seniors.
He was banished to Spotswood’s reserves for several weeks just as VFL clubs — headed by Footscray — were starting to take note of Boyd’s elite attributes.
“I have heard Jordy talk about that a few times over his journey. It obviously had an impact on him where he went, ‘jeez, I can’t do this at this footy club. I need to do it this way to play good footy’,” Eames said.
“I think there’s no doubt it’s held him in good stead.”
Reflecting on that incident, which has proven a seminal moment in his development, Boyd has no regrets.
“I look back on it and obviously thankful I went because I don’t get the opportunity to do that now,” he said.
Boyd debuted for Footscray in 2019, kicking three goals while wearing the No.75.
But at the start of 2021, he was still playing in Melbourne’s western suburbs at a club whose home ground is only a few drop punts from the West Gate Fwy.
Boyd featured for Spotswood in an opening-round loss to Hoppers Crossing that year.
He received his jumper for the new season from Lachie Fogarty, another Spotswood alumni who would become his AFL teammate 55 days later.
“I definitely go watch the boys play and my mates play cricket. They’re a big outlet for me, hanging out with my friends,” Boyd said.
“I’m not a big footy head, so stepping outside this world and going to hang out with them is really good for me and I think I’m still that same person as when I was playing for Spotty, just maybe a bit more professional.”
Less than eight weeks later, Boyd was selected by Carlton at pick No.20 in the mid-season draft.
“It was unreal. He played the first game of the season with us (in 2021). Then Footscray picked him and Carlton picked him in the (mid-season) rookie draft,” Walshe said.
“At the start of the season he’s playing local footy in the Western Region footy league … next minute he’s signed up by Carlton.”
Boyd was working in a factory when his manager Scott Lucas stunned him with the call that would change his life.
“He rang me up out of the blue. I was literally in the warehouse trying to pack an order or something and he asked me how I’m going and stuff then said, ‘by the way Carlton wants to have an interview with you’,” he said.
“I was a bit like, ‘what the hell? This is a bit strange’.”
Boyd said goodbye to his workmates on Tuesday evening during the week of the mid-season draft and told them he would see them on Thursday.
“I had to call the boss and tell him I’d quit, which was pretty insane,” he said.
Boyd said there have been several ‘what the hell’ moments since becoming a Blue.
“I’ve had a few moments in random games, coming in at halftime very focused, then as soon as I walk out the race you’re kind of like, ‘what the hell am I doing?’ I have had a few of those moments,” he said.
“It’s been obviously a different journey to a lot of the boys that I play with and it’s really shocked me and probably everyone around me. It’s been crazy.
“And just getting used to belonging at this level, that’s how I’m starting to feel this year building a couple of games in a row. Reflecting on it, it’s been an amazing journey. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The Blues earmarked Boyd for a role as a medium forward, but he has made his name and become a regular on Michael Voss’ team sheet as a damaging halfback who has been hailed one of the AFL’s premier kicks.
“I was lucky enough to work at Collingwood for five years and (Nathan) Buckley is the best kick I’ve seen,” Eames said.
“I’m not saying Jordy is anywhere near Nathan Buckley. But he has got an ability to kick the ball which is, in my opinion, second best I have seen. That’s a fair way off Buckley.
“But I have seen a lot of footballers and coached a lot over the journey, at VFL level and a lot of them have gone on to play AFL. None of them kick the ball like him outside of Buckley.”
The unheralded Blue ranks ninth in the AFL under Champion Data’s kicking rating system and 50 of his 59 kicks this season have hit the target.
He will be pivotal to Carlton’s bid to reclaim a top-four spot during the next month as the Blues start a stretch including games against GWS, Geelong, Collingwood, Melbourne and Sydney without injured defensive duo Mitch McGovern and Adam Saad.
Originally published as Carlton’s Jordan Boyd on his development from Spotswood to AFL
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