Matthew Lloyd

For the racing cyclist, see Matthew Lloyd (cyclist). For the British Sledge Hockey player, see Matt Lloyd (Paralympian).

Matthew Lloyd
Lloyd playing for Essendon during 2007
Personal information
Full name	Matthew James Lloyd
Date of birth	16 April 1978 (1978-04-16)
Place of birth	Melbourne
Original team	Avondale Heights/Western Jets
Height/Weight	192 cm / 96 kg
Position(s)	Full forward
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1995–2009	Essendon	270 (926)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
1998	Victoria	? (?)
International team honours
1998, 2001	Australia	? (?)
1 Playing statistics to end of 2009 season . 2 State and International statistics correct as of 2001.
Career highlights
Jim Stynes Medal: 2001 All-Australian: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 Essendon premiership side: 2000 Coleman Medal: 2000, 2001, 2003 Essendon leading goalkicker: 1997–2005, 2007–2009 Essendon all time leading goalkicker Seventh highest goal scorer in VFL/AFL history Goal of the Year (2007) Mark of the Year (2008)

Matthew James Lloyd (born 16 April 1978) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for and was the captain of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League. Lloyd is currently an assistant coach at the AIS-AFL Academy and an AFL commentator.

A highly decorated full-forward, Lloyd's Australian Football League honours include seventh highest goalkicker in VFL/AFL history, Coleman Medals as leading goalkicker for three seasons, life membership as well as winning both the Mark of the Year and Goal of the Year awards. Lloyd also belongs to the small group of players whose first kick in the AFL resulted in a goal as well as players to have kicked the "ton" – over 100 goals in a season – twice. Among his representative honours are five All-Australian selections, twice representing Australia in International rules football and a member of the Victorian state team.

As well as being the top all-time goal scorer, captain and life member at Essendon, Lloyd's club honours include a premiership medallion in 2000.

Early life

Matthew Lloyd was born in Melbourne in 1978 to parents John (a former Australian footballer who played 29 games for the Carlton Football Club from 1965–1967) and Bev Lloyd. The Lloyds moved to Scotland for three years because of John's work, and it was there that Matthew picked up rugby and soccer playing for his Currie club.

Lloyd attended St Martin De Porres Parish Primary School in Avondale Heights before moving to St Bernards College, Essendon.

He supported the Fitzroy Football Club when he was young because in the first game he attended, Fitzroy player Bernie Quinlan kicked nine goals.

Football career

Lloyd was drafted into the AFL as a 16 year old in the 1995 Pre-season Draft as a "compensatory selection" that was awarded to Essendon by the AFL in return for losing Todd Ridley to the newly formed Fremantle Football Club. The Bombers picked up what would be one of their all-time greats for a relative pittance in the draft. Lloyd was heralded as a future football star after his AFL debut in Round 14, 1995, where he scored a goal with his first kick in league football and three for the match.

The key features of Matthew Lloyd's game were his powerful marks on the lead (particularly overhead), his use of his body in a defensive capacity and deadly accurate goal kicking, particularly from set shots, on his left foot. He converted a vast majority of set shots inside the 50-metre arc, and kicked further than 50 metres on a regular basis.

Lloyd was known for his ritual when taking set shots at goal. Almost every time he took time to go far back on the mark, pull both his socks up, then grab some grass and throw it into the air to measure the wind and take a very long run up before kicking. In 2006, the AFL introduced a "shot clock" to limit the amount of time that players had to take set shots; although Lloyd's ritual was not the longest in the league, its quirks make it the most well-known, so the rule became commonly known as "the Lloyd Rule". Lloyd adjusted his ritual to fit into the new rule, and still retained the most famous aspect (throwing grass) until the end of his career.

This goalscoring ability enabled him to top the Essendon goal scoring every year from 1997 to 2009, except for 2006 when he only played three games due to a serious hamstring injury.

Lloyd was selected in the All Australian Team on five occasions (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003), won the Coleman Medal for kicking the most goals in the regular season three times (in 2000, 2001 and 2003) and twice kicked more than 100 goals in a completed season (109 in 2000 and 105 in 2001; on both occasions he reached the milestone during the finals).

Lloyd was a member of Essendon's 2000 premiership team, and was captain of Essendon from 2006–09. He was recognised for his achievements at Essendon in 2002 when he was ranked the 22nd greatest player ever to play for the club in the "Champions of Essendon" list.

Injuries

1996 spleen injury

During Essendon's 1996 preliminary final against the Sydney Swans in Sydney, Lloyd ruptured his spleen. He suffered a large amount of blood loss and spent 10 days in intensive care in a Sydney hospital.

2002 finger tendon injury

In Round 6, 2002 against Fremantle, Lloyd ruptured a tendon in his right ring finger when it was caught in his opponents guernsey. It required surgery to be reattached and he was out for 8 weeks.

Lloyd returned in Round 14 against the Western Bulldogs where Steven Kretiuk controversially targeted his injured hand.

2006 hamstring injury

Midway through the third quarter of the Essendon vs. Bulldogs match on 16 April 2006 (which happened to be Lloyd's 28th birthday), opponent Brian Harris accidentally fell on Lloyd as he tried to mark the ball. Lloyd walked off the ground with the aid of trainers and did not return for the rest of the match. Following scans, a week later it was revealed that the hamstring tendon had been snapped off the bone. Surgery to repair the career threatening injury took place which ruled him out for the rest of the season. Lloyd's absence from the team was felt hard, as the Bombers finished near the foot of the ladder at season's end.

Lloyd made a successful comeback against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium in Round 1, 2007. He kicked two goals while working further up the ground, putting to rest any concerns about his injured hamstring. Essendon beat Adelaide by 31 points.

2008 Mark of the Year

Goal of the Year 2007

In Round 20, 2007, Lloyd kicked a backheel goal whilst surrounded by opponents and was awarded the 2007 Goal of the Year.

Mark of the Year 2008

In Round 18 against the Melbourne Demons, Lloyd took a specky of a mark above five players to win the 2008 Mark of the Year. A haul of eight goals in that match gave Lloyd his best return since Round 1, 2006.

Round 22, 2009

In Round 22, 2009 Lloyd hit Brad Sewell with a heavy bump that left Sewell unconscious and with facial injuries which started a bench-clearing brawl. In the bitter aftermath of the match, Hawthorn's Campbell Brown called Lloyd "one of the biggest snipers in the game" and said that "his time is coming",. Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson threatened Lloyd and abused an interchange steward and had to be restrained by Hawthorn football manager Mark Evans as the teams left the field. AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou defended Lloyd's reputation, Clarkson was fined for his comments and later apologised for the outburst.

Lloyd was given a six-match suspension by the match review panel for the hit on Sewell, but was suspended for four matches after deciding not to appeal the sanction.

Retirement

On 23 September 2009 Lloyd announced his retirement to a packed media conference at the Essendon Football Club Hall of Fame. Although he had been offered another contract, Lloyd said that "now is my time from a physical and mental point of view" and that he would "...prefer to go a year too early than a year too late."

To celebrate Lloyd's career, the Lockett End of Etihad Stadium has been renamed the Lloyd End for Essendon home games.

Media work

Lloyd co-hosted children's AFL show Auskick'n Around on Fox Footy Channel with Brad Johnson from the Western Bulldogs from 2003 until it was cancelled at the end of 2005.

In 2006 Lloyd had a weekly spot as a panelist on Fox Footy's White Line Fever and after being forced to spend extended time off the field because of injury, he became recognised for his informative views on all things football – his roles included being a special comments commentator on Triple M's football coverage as well as more regular appearances on The AFL Footy Show, as a panelist.

In 2009 Lloyd appeared as a regular panelist on a new show, One Week at a Time as well as doing special comments on Channel 10 and writing a regular column for The Age newspaper.

Following his retirement Lloyd has been heavily involved in the media. From 2010-2011 he was regular special commentator for Channel 10 and radio station SEN, was a co-host of The Game Plan on One HD during 2011, and continued working for The Age.

Lloyd's autobiography (co-authored with Andrew Clarke), Straight Shooter, was released in July 2011.

After Network Ten lost the AFL broadcasting rights, Lloyd joined the Nine Network for 2012 to be a panelist on 'The Footy Show' and 'The Sunday Footy Show'. He also left SEN to join 3AW's AFL special comments team.

Personal life

Lloyd's parents are John and Bev Lloyd. John Lloyd played 29 games for Carlton from 1965–1967 and coached the Braybrook Football Club to three premierships. The family moved to Scotland for three years because of John Lloyd's work and it was there that Lloyd played rugby and soccer his Currie club.

Lloyd has two older brothers, Simon, who is an assistant coach at the Fremantle Football Club, and Brad, who is a former Hawthorn player (and former captain of the Williamstown Football Club) and now national recruiting manager for the Fremantle Football Club, as well as one older sister, Kylie, who is the Unit Manager at The Footy Show.

On 9 November 2002, Lloyd married his childhood sweetheart, Lisa-Marie Caparello, usually known as "Lisa", at Xavier College Chapel. Their wedding was covered by New Idea magazine and a documentary of the day, titled One Day In November, was also aired on Fox Footy Channel. Lisa Lloyd appeared on The Footy Show's singing competition, Screamers, in 2005 and was also a regular presenter on Fox Footy's Living With Footballers.

The Lloyds have two daughters; Jaeda Ruby (born December 2006) and Kira Grace (born September 2009).

Further reading

• Lloyd, Matthew (2011). Matthew Lloyd: Straight Shooter. Random House Australia. ISBN 9781864712933. 

External links

• Matthew Lloyd's profile on the Official AFL Website of the Essendon Football Club
• Matthew Lloyd's statistics from AFL Tables
• Essendon Past Players Profile: Matthew Lloyd

Sporting positions
Preceded by James Hird	Essendon Football Club captain 2006–2009	Succeeded by Jobe Watson
Awards
Preceded by Scott Cummings David Neitz	Coleman Medal 2000–2001 2003	Succeeded by David Neitz Fraser Gehrig
Preceded by Michael Newton	AFL Mark of the Year 2008	Succeeded by Brett Burton