Captain, father and scholar….2013 has been a big year for Matthew Boyd.
As the Captain of the Western Bulldogs, he’s spent countless hours each week mentoring the newest generation of pups at Whitten Oval, while re-working his personal approach to footy to best suit the plans of first-year coach Brendan McCartney.
Being the skipper of a footy club means more meetings, greater media commitments, and less time at home than the average footballer is afforded. If that’s not enough responsibility, Boyd is also raising a young family.
So how is it possible Boyd was awarded the La Trobe University ‘Education and Training’ Award at this year’s Be the Influence AFL Players’ MVP Awards? How does he have time to study?
‘”I don’t really,” admitted Boyd with a smile, as he accepted the award on stage in front of 600 guests at Peninsula, Docklands.
Each season, the La Trobe University ‘Education and Training’ Award is given to a player who has achieved outstanding academic success. This year the award went to Boyd, who completed a Master of Business Administration.
It was a long-time coming – his undergraduate degree alone took the best part of a decade to complete.
“The need to develop myself, and for all AFL players to develop themselves, outside of football is really important… I’m actually looking to start to create some networks now and find out what it is I actually want to do. Once I find that out I’ll go full-steam ahead.”
“The Bachelor of Commerce took a while – seven years part-time, so one of the slowest Commerce degrees of all time,” Boyd admits.
The demands of AFL have meant Boyd has only been able to study part-time, but persistence has always been one of the hard-nosed midfielder’s trademarks.
Boyd entered the AFL system through the 2002 rookie draft. He was elevated to the senior list and debuted at the age of 20, playing eight games in 2003 before cementing his position in the Dogs’ line-up in 2004. By 2011 he was leading the Bulldogs out as captain.
It wasn’t the usual path an AFL skipper travels down, but it proved to be a handy one for Boyd from an academic sense.
“I was lucky and unlucky but I didn’t get drafted straight out of the under-18 competition, so that gave me an opportunity to start uni,” Boyd recalls.
“I did a full year at uni, which was eight subjects, which knocked a fair bit of the workload out of it.”
Boyd has played more than 200 games and is set to venture into a 12th AFL season in 2014, but is well aware footy doesn’t last forever.
“The need to develop myself, and for all AFL players to develop themselves, outside of football is really important… I’m actually looking to start to create some networks now and find out what it is I actually want to do. Once I find that out I’ll go full-steam ahead.”
With his studies complete, the 31-year-old is well-placed to pursue a new career when footy finally comes to an end. Until then, Brendan McCartney and the Bulldogs will relish having their skipper around Whitten Oval. If the speedy development of the Dogs’ young midfield this season is anything to go by, Boyd is as outstanding a teacher as he was a student.
-Sam McInerney is a former Latrobe University journalism student-