The Blue Boars number eight polled the three best and fairest points for his efforts in their 30-25 win over Pirates on Saturday. 

They’ll be his last for a few weeks though, with Boyle heading overseas for a few weeks. 

He’ll get back for the final game of the regular season – a rematch with arch rivals Moree. 

The 29-year-old only started playing in the forwards this season, having plied his trade predominantly in the centres.

The move was driven by a few different factors.

One was Narrabri's wealth of centres.

A bit shorter for backrowers, coach Hunter Harley thought he might be a good fit there.

“I think he’s good at holding his feet and he has good leg drive,” Harley said.

He’s also a good defender, and ball carrier, and has got a good rugby brain.

“I knew it wouldn’t take him much to adapt,” he said.

He’s shuffled between six and eight and, for Boyle, it’s work out well.

“I kept getting injured in the backs,” he joked.

“I went to the forwards and haven’t got injured.”

He has been plagued by injury in recent years and has probably spent as much time off the field as on it.

It’s a trait he shares with brother Dave, with their penchant for picking up injuries the stuff of legend out at Narrabri.

Boyle has really enjoyed the change.

“I like it more than the backs,” he said.

“It’s a bit more work but I love it in there.”

This is his third season back at Narrabri, but first full season of first grade.

Saturday was tough, he said.

“The first half we lacked urgency,” he said.

“We started very slowly. I’m not sure what the go was there.”

They trailed 13-nil at one point and were 12 down at the break.

He said they didn’t need to be told what they needed to address for the second half.

They knew what they weren’t doing and, from the start of the second half, he said they felt good.

“We came out a different team in the second half,” Boyle said.

The forwards led the resurgence.

“It did feel like towards the end we had the wood on them in the piggies,” he said.

That was where they won it.

It was tough for the backs. 

“Their midfield defence was something else. There was no getting through there,” he said.

The forwards, in the first half anyway, probably didn’t set them a good platform.

Pirates centre Jake Douglas got the two points with Blue Boars half-back Henri Knight picking up the one.