Matthew Boyd was having an impact on the careers of Fremantle Dockers players well before he joined the Club as an assistant coach in 2020.

In 2016, the 14-year-old Heath Chapman was over the moon watching the Bulldogs win the Grand Final.

The West Perth product turned Fremantle Docker grew up a Bulldogs fan because he ‘liked the jumper’ and fittingly, Boyd was his favourite player.

On the other side of the country, Hayden Young also closely followed the career of Bulldogs legend. 

Young met Boyd at a Dandenong Stingrays training session when he was 16 and Boyd visited his former Club. From there, Young made sure to keep a close eye on midfielder turned defender when the Bulldogs played.

Now Boyd heads a backline that boasts Young and Chapman as two key pieces of its future – a youthful group that is still finding its feet despite ranking second for points conceded in 2022.

Young said Boyd has been a ‘massive’ addition to the backline as he brings all their talents together.

“He’s a great influence and given me a lot of confidence to play to my strengths, and that’s something that he does with all our players,” Young said.

“You think about Brandon Walker or Jordan Clark, who have run and dash, and Brennan Cox and Luke Ryan come across and intercept mark…it’s all a benefit of Boydy’s coaching, he brings the best out of us.

“He’s really hard (on us) as well, we have some honest conversations and he sets a really high standard and that’s had a flow on effect to how we perform on game day.”

While the AFL industry glorifies the goalkickers, Young says Boyd is a believer in the importance of a solid backline.

“When I came into the AFL, I loved attacking and probably didn’t prioritise defence enough, which is something Boydy and I have worked on over the last couple of years,” Young said. 

Boyd’s philosophy is finding a balance between defence and offence – meaning the Fremantle’s backline still plays a crucial role in its scoring capability.

“All three lines are responsible for the three phases of the game; the contest, defence and offence,” Boyd said. 

“The benefit of being behind the ball as a defender, like the quarterback in the NFL, the game is in front of you and you get to see all the moving parts - particularly from stoppage, it’s all in front of you. 

“We charge a lot of responsibility to the backs to set the group up and make sure the ground is set up the way we want it.”

And once Fremantle win the ball back on turnover, the backs are given the licence to punish the opposition – an area where speedy half backs Young, Chapman, Jordan Clark and Brandon Walker shine.

“Boydy talks a lot about getting our starting positions right, defending really strongly and then once you get the ball back, you just go,” Young said. 

“He gives us the freedom to take the game on and back ourselves - that’s really exciting. 

“We really pride ourselves on being a ruthless defence but once we get the ball in our hands, we’ve got a lot of speed, a lot of good ball users and we can be quite damaging. 

“It’s quite exciting being the first layer of offence because you get to set up the field and choose which way you want to go. 

“It’s really rewarding when you can go end to end from the backline and it feels like we started the play, it’s something we enjoy doing.”

Despite falling just 20 points short of being the no.1 defence in 2022, Boyd believes the backline has plenty of growth to come.

Brennan Cox (24), Clark (21), Young (21) and Walker (19) all played 20 games or more in 2022, while the 20-year-old Chapman played 17.

“There’s always room to improve if we’re really purposeful and understand the areas we need to evolve,” Boyd said.

“If you’re not evolving, you’re going backwards.

“We’ll continue to build chemistry within the backline and within the playing group. 

“One of the real features of our unit as a backline is we’re a really connected group and we fight for each other.

“That’s something I’m extremely proud of with the backline group, for developing and building that within themselves. 

“We’re not a finished product as a backline and I think we’ve got a fair scope for growth within us, given how young we are and how hungry our players are for that improvement.”

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