Boyd, mayhem dressed up in a football guernsey

WHAT'S all the kerfuffle about Barry Hall? Where was he when Big Nick was scaring the daylights out of everybody in the VFL?

If you want to know about a footballer who really knew how to raise a riot, you need to know about one of Hall's predecessors in a Swans guernsey, Ken Boyd, who continued creating mayhem after taking a coaching job in the country.

In this age of heavily policed football, a waltz through Boyd's career is like a trip to another planet.

Early in the 1961 VFL season, when he was a South Melbourne follower, Boyd was suspended for six games for jobbing Carlton legend John Nicholls and rover John Heathcote. Late that season, he again showed a lack of awe towards Big Nick and laid him out behind play.

After claiming in a newspaper interview that he had been provoked, Boyd's action was investigated. He was rubbed out for 12 games. He quit league footy, having played 60 matches, and missing 30 through suspension. After serving his ban, Boyd made his debut as a Wangaratta Rovers player late in the 1962 season and took over as playing-coach at the end of the year.

Rovers people loved him. He had charisma, a winning smile and an easy charm.

But it was Boyd's ruggedness as a player that really set him apart. In that era, former Collingwood captain Frank Tuck was the playing-coach at Corowa.

When Tuck broke his jaw in a clash with Boyd, Melbourne newspaper The Sun News Pictorial covered the incident with great exuberance. Boyd later sued the paper. The case was heard in Melbourne's Supreme Court and received huge coverage.

Boyd won damages.

Boyd led the Rovers to premierships in 1964 and '65. In 1966, they lined up against arch-rival Wangaratta in the preliminary final.

Boyd's opponent, centre half-back Bernie Killeen, was flat on his back before the opening bounce.

At half-time, Boyd told his players to ignore him and play the ball. The ground became littered with the form of Wangaratta footballers as Boyd tried in vain to lead his team to another grand final. After the season, Boyd quit football and returned to Melbourne to work in real estate.

He now lives in Kew and dabbles in the sharemarket.

Yesterday, he failed to recall cutting a swathe through the Wangaratta team in his final game, although he did admit to frustration at a crippling back injury. His version of the Tuck incident was that Tuck took a flying leap to tackle him and had come to grief when Boyd had lowered his shoulder.

Boyd regarded himself an honest player and "very seldom unfair".

On the Hall incident, Boyd did not exactly say it was a good or bad thing. But he said it was a wonder it did not happen more often, given the attention that star midfielders receive from taggers.

He rarely goes to games these days, preferring to go fishing or shooting, and recently bagged 15 quails, two foxes and three rabbits.

At 70, he remains drawn to rugged pursuits.