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The time the Dogs refused to include a young Bont in mega trade
SEN • June 12th, 2025 12:42 pm
Tom Boyd was the key piece in one of the biggest AFL trades in modern history, and he was only 19 years old at the time.
After just nine games and one season at GWS after being taken at pick No. 1 in the 2013 Draft, Boyd requested a trade to the Western Bulldogs.
While the Giants were initially reluctant to trade their young key forward, the deal was done once the then Dogs skipper agreed to go the other way alongside pick 6 in the 2014 Draft.
Even though Boyd was the figure who officially requested the move, he revealed that the Dogs came to him trying to get him to the Whitten Oval incredibly early on his debut season, albeit with the idea that they’d trade for him one year later at the end of 2015.
“I said yes (to the trade) obviously,” Boyd told This is Your Journey – thanks to Tobin Brothers.
“But what sort of happened was that I was approached by the Dogs early in the year at the Giants, maybe Round 8 or something.
“They tried pretty hard I think in my draft year to get a go at me. They took Bont, which was a terrible pick obviously… (laughs).
“Then we went and met with them in the middle of the season at some stage (with a view to do a deal in 12 months), but we wanted to get it done as quickly as possible.”
The reason why the first idea of the trade in 2014 was initially knocked back is that the Dogs felt only two players would get the deal done. Marcus Bontempelli and Ryan Griffen.
The Bulldogs were simply unwilling to push either of those players out until Griffen himself wanted out amid a torrid off-season that saw coach Brendan McCartney resign.
“Obviously, the huge blow-up hadn't happened at the Bulldogs at this time, and we got to that point at Peter (Gordon)’s house where we essentially had to nut out the trade,” Boyd said.
“There was only really one conversation which was, ‘Tom’s the number one pick and a key forward at a club who will be very unlikely to want to trade him. Here are two players that you might be able to trade, Marcus Bontempelli and Ryan Griffen’, and they weren’t going to trade their captain. So, the deal was off.
“It was ‘We'll revisit it in 2015’, that was until Ryan asked for the trade.”
Boyd discussed that trade, his career and much more on this week’s episode.
Listen to Boyd’s full chat with Sam Edmund below.
