The 30-year-old has played under Bennett his entire career starting at Brisbane, then the Dragons, Knights and back to Red Hill.

But it was as a 24-year-old while off-contract at the Dragons when the newly appointed Brisbane skipper almost left his beloved coach.

Bennett had signed with the Knights for three years but Boyd was desperately homesick and considering a $1.5 million deal to return to Queensland with the Titans.

“I’d been away for a long time and I really wanted to go home, back home where my grandma was,” Boyd told foxsports.com.au.

“My friends and family, I was really missing them at that point and I was flying home almost every weekend.

“I was lucky, at the time the Dragons were playing a lot of Friday night games so I used to fly back a lot of weekends.

“I was just homesick and sick of being away. I was really close.

“I was seriously considering the Titans for a long time; I was ready to go a couple of times.”

But the prospect of leaving Bennett’s side proved too much.

“The pros of staying with Wayne were obvious: I was going to become a better football player and a better person hopefully as well,” Boyd said.

“The only reason I really wanted to go home was to be home. But your career’s so short and you’re lucky if you can get 10, 12 or 15 years out of it.

“So I thought you may as well do whatever you can to become a better footballer and person, and that meant sticking with Wayne and I think it’s worked out.”