David Boyle (born 3 July 1971) is an Australian former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played for the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

in the

New South Wales Rugby League The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was ...

(NSWRL) competition and for the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

. Boyle played in the backs, chiefly at . He is the father of Morgan Boyle and

Millie Boyle Millie Boyle (born 19 May 1998) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who currently co-captains the Newcastle Knights in the NRL Women's Premiership. Her position is . Boyle previously played rugby union as a flanker. She is a ...

Playing career

Canberra

Boyle was graded by the Raiders during the 1990 season. He made his first grade debut from the bench in his sides' 20–18 win over the

Gold Coast Seagulls The Gold Coast Chargers were a professional rugby league club which played in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership from 1988 to 1994, the Australian Rugby League premiership from 1995 to 1997, and the National Rugby League premiership ...

Bruce Stadium Canberra Stadium (GIO Stadium for commercial reasons) is a facility primarily used for rugby league and rugby union games, located adjacent to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is the largest sports v ...

in round 4 of the 1991 season. Boyle also scored his first try in his debut match. He was one of the Raiders' shining prospects when the club was forced to release several star players due to salary cap problems at the end of the 1991 season. Most of the Raiders players (including Boyle himself) agreed to take a pay cut to keep the side together. The Raiders missed the finals for the first time since 1986 when they finished twelfth in the 1992 season. The Raiders came back strongly in 1993, with their international stars

Mal Meninga Malcolm Norman Meninga (; born 8 July 1960) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of the Australian national team and a former professional rugby league footballer. Meninga is widely regarded as one of the fin ...

Ricky Stuart Ricky John Stuart (born 7 January 1967) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the Canberra Raiders in the NRL and a former rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. He ...

Laurie Daley Laurie William Daley AM (born 20 October 1969), also known by the nicknames of "Lozza" and "Loz", is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and a former player who played as a and in the 1980s and 1990s. He represented Aus ...

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and Steve Walters, alongside tryscoring Fijian sensation

Noa Nadruku Noa Nadruku (born 19 September 1967) is a Fijian former rugby footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. After representing Fiji in rugby union, he switched to play rugby league in Australia for the Canberra Raiders (92 games between 1993 and ...

(22 tries for the season) leading the way. Canberra finished third after the regular season, and were premiership favorites until their fateful round 21 match with the hapless

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

. Halfback

badly broke and dislocated his right ankle in the second half and despite a club record 68–0 win, without their chief playmaker, the Raiders fell apart. They lost their last regular season game to the

Canterbury Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilita ...

32–8, before meekly going out in straight sets in the finals with losses to eventual Grand Finalists

St. George Dragons The St. George Dragons is an Australian rugby league football club from St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales competition and Australian Rugby League competitions from the 1921 until th ...

and premiers the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

. In the 1994 season, the Raiders once again finished third in the regular season, and went on to win their third premiership title. In the 1994 Grand Final against the

in which the Raiders won 36–12, Boyle, along with

Jason Death Jason Death (pronounced (; born 25 August 1971) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. Primarily a , he played for the Canberra Raiders, North Queensland Cowboys, New Zealand Warriors and ...

were both listed on the four-man interchange bench, but were not used in the game. In the 1995 season, the Raiders finished second after losing only two matches in the regular season, and once again looked like title contenders. They lost in the preliminary final to the

25–6. In the 1998 season, his final season at the Raiders, Boyle had his best season, after playing in 22 of their 26 games, he finished the season with 11 tries second only to

Mark McLinden Mark McLinden (born 8 July 1979) is an Australian former professional rugby footballer of the 1990s and 2000s. He played rugby league in the NRL for Australian club, the Canberra Raiders and in the Super League for English club the London Bron ...

. Boyle left the Raiders at the conclusion of the 1998 season.

Bradford Bulls

In 1999, Boyle joined English

side

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

. After playing 56 games and scoring 17 tries for the Bulls, Boyle decided to retire at the end of the 2000 Super League season.

Country

After he retired from Super League, Boyle served as captain-coach of Narooma Devils in the Group 16 competition, leading them to the

Clayton Cup The Clayton Cup is a trophy that was awarded by the Country Rugby League to the NSW country rugby league team with the best overall record for that season. To be eligible, the team must win the highest level of competition in its region. Usually t ...

in 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, David 1971 births Living people Australian rugby league players Bradford Bulls players Canberra Raiders players Rugby league centres Rugby league players from Bega, New South Wales Rugby league wingers