Matthew Lloyd

Matthew James Lloyd (born 16 April 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

A highly decorated full-forward, Lloyd's AFL's honours include being the eighth all-time leading goalkicker in the history of AFL/VFL, with three Coleman Medals as leading goalkicker in the league, AFL life membership, as well as winning both the Mark of the Year and Goal of the Year awards.

Among his representative honours are five All-Australian selections, three times representing the Victoria State of Origin team, as well as twice representing Australia in International rules football.

Lloyd has kicked over 100 goals in a season twice.

He also belongs to the relatively small group of players whose first kick in the AFL resulted in a goal.

With 926 goals from 270 games, he holds the record for the most career goals at Essendon, including winning the leading goalkicker award 12 times—five more times than any other Bomber.

Upon his retirement, the award was renamed the Matthew Lloyd Medal in his honour.

Matthew Lloyd was born in Melbourne in 1978 to parents John (a former VFL 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. Bernard's College, Melbourne.

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

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 Lloyd's game were his powerful marks on the lead (particularly overhead), his use of his body in a defensive capacity and accurate goal kicking, particularly from set shots on his left foot.

He converted a large 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, and then grab some grass and throw it into the air to measure the wind and take a very long run-up before kicking; this was his method of following advice given to him by coaches to bring down his heart rate in order to focus better.

Lloyd's goal-scoring 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.

He first played for Victoria in 1997, against South Australia, kicking 3 goals, including a snap kick along the ground from near the boundary line, which went one way and then curved back another.

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 (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).

In 1998, Lloyd kicked two goals against The Allies, in Brisbane.

Lloyd last played for Victoria in 1999 against South Australia in the second-last-ever State of Origin game, kicking 3 goals and being named in the best players.

In Round 3, 1999, Lloyd, aged just 21 at the time, kicked a record 13 goals against the Sydney Swans at the MCG, kicking the first goal of the game and breaking John Coleman's record for most goals kicked by an Essendon player against the Swans.

In his first game as Essendon captain, also playing against the Sydney Swans, Lloyd kicked eight goals (six in the first quarter against his opponent, Leo Barry) He kicked a total of 69 goals playing against the Swans throughout his career.

Lloyd was a member of Essendon's 2000 premiership team and was captain of Essendon from 2006 to 2009.

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.

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 made it so well known that the rule became commonly known as the "Lloyd Rule".

Lloyd adjusted his ritual to fit into the new rule, and he still retained the most famous aspect (throwing grass) until the end of his career.

Lloyd was appointed Essendon captain ahead of the 2006 season after James Hird elected to stand down following the side's disappointing 2005 season.

Lloyd's first match as Essendon captain resulted in a 27-point win over the defending premiers Sydney, where he kicked eight goals (six of them in the first quarter alone).

It would be the only win that Essendon would enjoy under Lloyd's captaincy until exactly a year later.

In addition to serving as captain and earning life membership at Essendon, Lloyd is also the team's all-time-highest goal scorer.

A haul of eight goals in that match gave Lloyd his best return since Round 1, 2006.

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

In Round 18 against the Melbourne Demons, Lloyd took a spectacular mark above five players to win the 2008 Mark of the Year.

Immediately after the mark, Lloyd recalled in a 2022 episode of The Sunday Footy Show that he roasted his opponent Matthew Warnock afterwards:

"You've always wanted to be on a footy card; now you'll probably be on one."

In 2013, Lloyd was inducted as a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame and as a Legend in the Essendon Football Club Hall of Fame.

Lloyd had a successful State of Origin career, kicking 8 goals in 3 games.