Matthew Lloyd
Encyclopedia
Matthew James Lloyd (born 16 April 1978) is a former Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

er who played for and was the captain of the Essendon Football Club
Essendon Football Club
The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

 in the Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

. Lloyd is currently an assistant coach at the AIS-AFL Academy and an AFL
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 commentator.

A highly decorated full-forward
Full-forward
Full-forward is a position in Australian rules football and Gaelic football with a key focus on kicking goals.Leading full-forwards of the Australian Football League are usually among those awarded with the Coleman Medal for the most goals in an AFL season....

, Lloyd's Australian Football League honours include seventh highest
AFL All-time Goalkicking records
The following is a listing of the highest all-time goalkickers in the Australian Football League . Players who have kicked 500 goals or more are listed. Includes only goals kicked in the home and away season and finals...

 goalkicker in VFL/AFL history, Coleman Medal
Coleman Medal
The Coleman Medal is awarded yearly to the Australian Football League player who kicks the most goals in regular-season matches in that year...

s as leading goalkicker for three seasons, life membership as well as winning both the Mark of the Year
Mark of the Year
The annual Mark of the Year competition is a sporting award that celebrates each season's best mark...

 and Goal of the Year
Goal of the Year (Australia)
The Goal of the Year is a competition for the best goals kicked in the VFL/AFL during that season. It is run in conjunction with the Mark of the Year competition and is currently sponsored by Panasonic. The award is also known as the Phil Manassa Medal....

 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
International rules football
International rules football is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international representative matches between Australian rules football players and Gaelic football players....

 and a member of the Victorian state team
Victoria Australian rules football team
The Victorian Australian rules football team, also known as the Big V is the representative side of Victoria, Australia in the sport of Australian rules football....

.

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
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...

 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
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

 and soccer playing for his Currie
Currie
Currie is a civil parish and suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated 10 kilometres south west of the city centre. A former village within the County of Midlothian, it lies to the south west of the city, between Juniper Green and Balerno on the Lanark Road...

 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
Fitzroy Football Club
The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...

 when he was young because in the first game he attended, Fitzroy player Bernie Quinlan
Bernie Quinlan
Bernie Quinlan , was a former Australian rules footballer and coach, who enjoyed a lengthy career with Footscray and Fitzroy in the VFL. He played 366 league games in total.- Playing career :...

 kicked nine goals.

Football career

Lloyd was drafted into the AFL as a 16 year old in the 1995 Pre-season Draft
1994 AFL Draft
The 1994 AFL Draft consisted of a pre-season draft, a national draft, a trade period and a rookie elevation. The AFL Draft is the annual draft of talented players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League.In 1994 there...

 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
Fremantle Football Club
The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed The Dockers, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in the port city of Fremantle at the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia...

. 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 mark
Mark (Australian football)
A mark is a skill in Australian rules football where a player cleanly catches a kicked ball that has travelled more than 15 metres without anyone else touching it or the ball hitting the ground....

s 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
50-metre arc
In Australian rules football, the 50-metre arc is one of the arcs that exist at each end of the ground, 50m from the goal line...

, 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
Coleman Medal
The Coleman Medal is awarded yearly to the Australian Football League player who kicks the most goals in regular-season matches in that year...

 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.

1996 spleen injury

During Essendon's 1996 preliminary final against the Sydney Swans
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...

 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
Fremantle Football Club
The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed The Dockers, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in the port city of Fremantle at the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia...

, 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
Steven Kretiuk
Steven Kretiuk is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Western Bulldogs in the AFL.Kretiuk was a defender and spent over a decade at Footscray, with injuries preventing him from reaching 200 games...

 controversially targeted his injured hand.

2006 hamstring injury

Midway through the third quarter of the Essendon vs. Bulldogs
Western Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne...

 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
AAMI Stadium
Football Park is an Australian rules football stadium located in West Lakes, a western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia...

 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.

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
Melbourne Football Club
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria....

, 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
Brad Sewell
Brad Sewell is an Australian rules footballer with the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League . He was selected with pick number 6 in the Rookie Draft in 2003...

 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
Campbell Brown (footballer)
Campbell Brown is an Australian rules footballer who has previously won a premiership with the Hawthorn Football Club and currently plays for the Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League .-AFL career:...

 called Lloyd "one of the biggest snipers in the game" and said that "his time is coming",. Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson
Alastair Clarkson
Alastair Clarkson is a former Australian rules footballer and current coach of the Hawthorn Football Club.- North Melbourne :...

 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
Andrew Demetriou
Andrew Demetriou is the chief executive officer of the Australian Football League and a former Australian rules footballer. He is the youngest son of Greek-Cypriot immigrants and, before becoming a VFL player, he worked in the dental import industry...

 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
Tony Lockett
Anthony Howard "Tony" Lockett is a former Australian rules football player. Lockett is the highest goal scorer in the history of the VFL/AFL with 1,360 goals in a career of 281 games, that commenced in 1983 with the St Kilda Football Club, and finished in 2002 with the Sydney Swans...

 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
Fox Footy Channel
The Fox Footy Channel was a channel exclusively dedicated to Australian rules football. It was owned by Foxtel, and operated out of their Melbourne based studios. It was available on Foxtel, Austar, Optus Television, TransTV and Neighbourhood Cable up until transmission was ceased on 1 October 2006...

 with Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson (Australian rules footballer)
Brad Johnson is a former Australian rules footballer who was the captain of Australian Football League team Western Bulldogs...

 from the Western Bulldogs
Western Bulldogs
The Western Bulldogs are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne...

 from 2003 until it was cancelled at the end of 2005.

In 2006 Lloyd had a weekly spot as a panelist on Fox Footy
Fox Footy
Fox Footy is an upcoming Australian Rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It will be owned by Premier Media Group, operated out of their Melbourne based studios and available on Foxtel, Austar and Optus...

'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
Triple M
The Triple M Network is an active rock radio network in Australia owned by media company Austereo, who also own the Today Network.- History :...

's football coverage as well as more regular appearances on The AFL Footy Show
The AFL Footy Show
The Footy Show is a Logie Award winning Australian sports television program, shown on the Nine Network and its affiliates.This show, which is dedicated to the AFL and Australian rules football, made its debut on 24 March 1994 at the same time as the other version which relates to the NRL and rugby...

, as a panelist.

In 2009 Lloyd appeared as a regular panelist on a new show, One Week at a Time
One Week at a Time (AFL)
One Week at a Time was an Australian Football League analysis show currently airing on One HD at 9.30pm AEST. It looks at the latest news, drama and issues concerning the AFL. It features a panel of host Stephen Quartermain, and former players Robert Walls and Luke Darcy...

 as well as doing special comments on Channel 10
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

 and writing a regular column for The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...

newspaper.

Following his retirement Lloyd has been heavily involved in the media. From 2010-2011 he was regular special commentator for Channel 10
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

 and radio station SEN
SEN 1116
SEN 1116 , the acronym standing for Sports Entertainment Network, is a commercial AM radio station based in Melbourne, Australia, operating on 1116 kHz...

, was a co-host of The Game Plan
The Game Plan (Australian TV series)
The Game Plan is the name given to two sports planning shows, one for discussing the Australian Football League and the other for discussing the National Rugby League. The two versions premiered on One HD in 2011.-See also:...

on One HD during 2011, and continued working for The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...

.

Lloyd's autobiography, Straight Shooter, was released in July 2011.

After Channel 10
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...

  lost the AFL
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 broadcasting rights, Lloyd joined Channel 9
Channel 9
- Asia and Pacific :* Channel 9 * DZKB-TV Channel 9, the flagship television station of Radio Philippines Network* Modernine TV, formerly known as Channel 9 * Nine Network, Australia* TV9 * TV9 * TV9...

 for 2012 to be a panelist on 'The Footy Show' and 'The Sunday Footy Show'. He also left SEN
SEN 1116
SEN 1116 , the acronym standing for Sports Entertainment Network, is a commercial AM radio station based in Melbourne, Australia, operating on 1116 kHz...

 to join 3AW
3AW
3AW is a talkback radio station in Melbourne, Australia on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station.-History:...

's AFL
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 special comments team.

Personal life

Lloyd's parents are John and Bev Lloyd. John Lloyd played 29 games for Carlton
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...

 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
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

 and soccer his Currie
Currie
Currie is a civil parish and suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated 10 kilometres south west of the city centre. A former village within the County of Midlothian, it lies to the south west of the city, between Juniper Green and Balerno on the Lanark Road...

 club.

Lloyd has two older brothers, Simon, who is an assistant coach at the Fremantle Football Club
Fremantle Football Club
The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed The Dockers, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in the port city of Fremantle at the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia...

, and Brad
Brad Lloyd
Brad Lloyd is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Hawthorn in the Australian Football League during the 1990s....

, who is a former Hawthorn
Hawthorn Football Club
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...

 player (and former captain of the Williamstown Football Club
Williamstown Football Club
The Williamstown Football Club, nicknamed The Seagulls, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne and are currently playing in the Victorian Football League...

) and now national recruiting manager for the Fremantle Football Club
Fremantle Football Club
The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed The Dockers, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in the port city of Fremantle at the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia...

, as well as one older sister, Kylie, who is the Unit Manager at The Footy Show
The AFL Footy Show
The Footy Show is a Logie Award winning Australian sports television program, shown on the Nine Network and its affiliates.This show, which is dedicated to the AFL and Australian rules football, made its debut on 24 March 1994 at the same time as the other version which relates to the NRL and rugby...

.

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
Fox Footy
Fox Footy is an upcoming Australian Rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It will be owned by Premier Media Group, operated out of their Melbourne based studios and available on Foxtel, Austar and Optus...

 Channel.
Lisa Lloyd appeared on The Footy Show's singing competition, Screamers, in 2005 and was also a regular presenter on Fox Footy
Fox Footy
Fox Footy is an upcoming Australian Rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It will be owned by Premier Media Group, operated out of their Melbourne based studios and available on Foxtel, Austar and Optus...

's Living With Footballers.

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

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK