YOU’D think that when a player gets recruited as a mid-season draftee, you have make all the right noises.

In Jordan Boyd’s case, that wasn’t exactly how things went. Not that he knew about that until recently.

A few weeks ago, Boyd penned a two-year contract extension, remaining at IKON Park until at least the end of 2026. It was just reward for arguably Carlton’s most improved player in 2024, who was recruited as a mid-season rookie three years ago.

With tomorrow making the 2024 AFL Mid-Season Rookie Draft, it’s been the perfect chance for Boyd to reminisce on that unassuming night three years ago when things changed in an instant.

And a conversation with Club Psychologist Tarah Kavanagh shed some light on a part of the draft process which, unbeknownst to him, he might not exactly have nailed.

“Before the game, I was chatting to Tarah who was congratulating me on signing for two years. She was like ‘now you’ve signed, I’ll let you in on something’,” Boyd told Carlton Media.

“Apparently the interview I did with the Club was horrible, and based off that, they weren’t going to draft me! But Nick and Mick were pretty keen to have me on board, so thankfully I got another interview and did better.”

Boyd admitted that his guard may have been down. In his view, he was plucked from relative obscurity, as someone who was just running around for Footscray’s VFL side to that point. Just a few weeks earlier, he was playing for Spotswood in the Western Region Football League, wearing his grandfather’s old No.10 jumper as their redeveloped ground opened post-Covid.

In Boyd’s eyes, the interview with Carlton was simply one where they were touching base. Potentially there might even be a rookie spot open at the end of the year if he kept playing well.

And then things changed in an instant.

“She said [the interview] was terrible, which is quite funny because I was just of the opinion I wasn’t going to get drafted. My mum didn’t watch the draft, because I didn’t really explain what was going on,” he said.

“I was just like ‘they’re interviewing me, maybe I might play well in the VFL and see where it puts me at the end of the year’. That’s the opinion I had coming into the draft.

“Dad was probably the only one that was really watching. I was watching by myself in my room but wasn’t paying attention when I got called out. Mum wasn’t watching. It was a complete surprise.

“Dad just started running around screaming, I looked up and saw my name, and the next minute my girlfriend Grace runs into the room. I think we were all in a bit of shock.”

And yet, the dream was almost over before it began.

In his second game for his new club in the VFL, Boyd was playing at Preston City Oval with the Carlton Reserves when - in an act of defensive desperation - his knee collided with the goal post. He thought nothing of it until a few days later after scans, when he was told he would have to wear a knee brace and would be sidelined for the medium term.

Coming in on a six-month contract with no guarantees of anything more, it was a crushing blow for Boyd.

“That was a bit of a strange one,” he said.

“When they told me I was going to be in a brace for the next eight weeks, I was a bit shocked. There was a lot of stuff going on at the Club at that time, more important than re-signing me, so I just continued to come into the Club and working as if I was going to get a contract.

“Luckily enough, I was given that opportunity. It was off to a shaky start!”

It was Boyd’s time at the Spotswood Football Club which he credits for his development, and his love of the game. His earliest footballing memories were at the ground which he has no shortage of a family connection too.

His maternal great-grandfather’s ashes were spread on the Spotswood ground, his maternal grandfather is in the club’s team of the century, and now his dad Jason still makes the football club his own by running water for the seniors and reserves.

Jordan’s first game for the seniors had Jason delivering messages — “that was fun, receiving messages that you’ve done something wrong from your dad”.

And back in 2021, just months before he would become a Carlton player, Boyd received his Spotswood guernsey for the year to come from none other than another former Spotswood player — Lachie Fogarty.

“It’s where I played most of my footy. I grew up playing here, did Auskick here, Dad played a couple of games so I was here a fair bit. Mum used to joke, but she’s serious, that she used to treat me like a dog by taking me to the bottom ground, kicking the footy as far as I could and let me run around.

“I played many games with the old club rooms before [the new one] was built, and the old surface. I played the first ever game here [at the redeveloped ground], which was a night game.

“Back in the day, I used to play under-19s and back it up to play in the seconds, so playing two games a weekend. Dad told me the other night that in the 2017 season, I played 32 games for the year. I loved it — playing backline, kicking torps out of full-back in the twos.

“It’s major credit to [Spotswood] and everyone involved . . . like, who would’ve thought really? To be on the list in the first place is pretty cool, and then to extend that as long as possible is even better. I’m so thankful to be at the Carlton Football Club.”

For the full feature with Boyd’s return to the Spotswood Football Club, stay tuned to Carlton Media channels tonight.