Garry Lyon says Western Bulldogs forward Tom Boyd needs to address his fluctuating form, ahead of tonight’s matchup against his former club Greater Western Sydney.
The premiership hero has had to step up and fill the breach left by the injury to ruckman Jordan Roughead, and the former Melbourne champion believes if he wasn’t needed in a major ruck role, his form, or lack thereof could have arguably seen him dropped.
“The question would be, and I would suggest that if it wasn’t for the injuries to their big men, (Jordan) Roughead in particular, then he probably would’ve been dropped at some stage, because Luke Beveridge plays no favours,” Lyon said on SEN Breakfast.
“Caleb Daniel only just got his way back into this side, his form (Boyd) has been to that level that you could justify him being dropped, but they’ve needed him to play in the ruck.”
Lyon hopes that Boyd can return to the form that saw him dominate in the closing weeks of the 2016 season.
“I’d like to see him start to clunk a few (marks),” he said.
“I tell you what he does, he gets to the contest, he gets his hands to them and doesn’t mark them.
“He’s clearly a confidence player, because when he was on in that last six weeks of last year he was marking purely.”
With GWS being renowned for their sweeping ball movement out of defence, Lyon said the Bulldogs need Boyd to compete and not get beaten in marking contests.
“He’s just going to have to make sure he contests and is never beaten in a marking contest, that’s baseline for someone like Tom Boyd,” he said.
“I don’t necessarily think his effort hasn’t been great, he’s never been one of those scratch, bite, he’s got his own level of competitiveness. I don’t question his level of competiveness.
“The contest tonight is really important, because if you get out marked in that back half it sets up Heath Shaw as the overlap and away go the Giants.”
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