Great or grub? Should Les Boyd be in the Hall of Fame?

On Wednesday, I picked up the phone and spoke to Darryl Brohman a couple of hours after the NRL announced Les Boyd would be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Brohman was incensed.

“I think it’s a ridiculous decision,” he told this masthead. “Can someone please explain why he’s now in the Hall of Fame? I don’t agree with it.”

A couple of hours later he took to X, formerly known as Twitter, and doubled down on those comments, publicly challenging why one of the game’s hardest – and most violent – players is now in a class of just 121 players in the Hall of Fame.

It’s been 41 years since one of the most deliberate acts on a football field marred a State of Origin match, in which NSW’s Boyd levelled an elbow at Queensland’s Brohman as he ran the ball, shattering his jaw. Boyd, in his own words, was out to “get Queenslanders”. He got one with an act which still lives in rugby league infamy.

It led to a complex chain of events which included a stalled playing career for both, legal action, Brohman’s extraordinary on-air radio spat with Bob Fulton and bad blood ever since. Boyd was also banned for 12 months by judiciary boss, “Gentleman” Jim Comans, who was on a mission to rid the game of thuggery.

Do you think that would have been enough for Boyd to learn a lesson? Apparently not.

Les Boyd throws a punch against North Sydney player Don McKinnon.Credit: Fairfax Media

Only three games into his comeback the following year, Boyd was again suspended for 15 months for eye gouging Canterbury’s Billy Johnstone. It effectively ended his career in Australia.

It’s indisputable that Boyd was a hard man in a hard game and from a different era, a fine player who would represent his country 17 times.

But it’s also inescapable his reputation as one of the most violent players the game has ever seen has outgrown any of his skills on the field.

That’s not to say other Immortals and Hall of Famers haven’t been plagued by their own on-field and off-field problems. Some had questionable judiciary records, others had habits off the field which portrayed the game in a bad light. No one is perfect.

Thankfully, rugby league has moved on from Les Boyd and the late ’70s and ’80s when the game was at its roughest. The Hall of Fame should have passed him by too.

When the likes of Greg Alexander, Gavin Miller and Paul Sironen are still not in the Hall of Fame, would anyone have really noticed if Boyd wasn’t included in the latest intake alongside Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Greg Inglis etc?

Let us, just for a moment, put the Darryl Brohman incident aside.

I appreciate it’s not an easy thing to do. That elbow – an inexcusable act of thuggery – should not be Les Boyd’s cause célèbre. And here is why.

Les Boyd on the attack for Australia.Credit: Fairfax Media

Look no further than the criteria for entering the Hall of Fame. It states that membership is open to “Individuals whom have competed in the elite premiership rugby league competition in Australia and achieved outstanding feats on and off the field throughout a professional playing career”.

On this measure, does Boyd qualify? Of course he does. It is why he played 17 Tests for Australia. To put that into proper context, that’s eight more than fellow inductee Steve Mortimer and just one less than the great Parramatta halfback Peter Sterling.

It is a pointer to his dominance that Boyd represented his country on so many occasions – as well as eight matches for NSW – despite being rubbed out for almost two entire seasons for that elbow and the subsequent eye-gouging of Billy Johnstone.

It is also why he was named at lock in Western Suburbs’ Team of the Century. As a side note, after finishing his career in England, he was inducted into Warrington’s Hall of Fame.

In an era of tough men, the infamous “Fibros v Silvertails” period, Boyd was the toughest. He could play second row or prop, was part of the legendary Kangaroos “Invincibles” and never backed down from anyone.

It was an attitude that got him in trouble when he crossed the line, but he shouldn’t be judged by the standards of today’s more sanitised game. Amid all the hysteria that his induction sparked on talkback radio on Thursday morning, there was a voice of reason.

“My take is, shouldn’t you be judging blokes on their footy ability? I got in trouble with plenty of stuff,” Steve Roach told 2KY’s Big Sports Breakfast.

“Purely just on rugby league ability, Les Boyd is one of the greatest ball runners ever to play. Take away all that other stuff. You should be judged by your ability, what you did on the field.”

On that score there can be no debate. Les Boyd deserves his place in the Hall of Fame.

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