Matthew J. Lloyd (born April 16 1978) is an Australian Rules footballer who plays for and is captain of the Essendon Bombers in the Australian Football League. Widely regarded as the best full-forward currently playing, he is the leading goal scorer of all time for Essendon.

The key features of Lloyd's game are 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, off either foot. He converts a vast majority of set shots inside the 50-metre arc, and kicks further than 50 metres on a regular basis. This goalscoring ability has been a key part to his game, allowing his team to outscore opponents even when bested in other areas of the field and has enabled him to top the Essendon goal scoring for nine consecutive seasons from 1997 to 2005.

Matthew attended St Bernard's College Essendon, a school renowned for its sporting prowess. After being picked up in the 1995 Pre-season draft as a "compensatory selection" that was traded away by Fremantle, 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 1995, where he scored a goal with his first kick in league football. Lloyd has since gone on to be selected in the All Australian Team on five occasions (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003), has won the Coleman Medal for kicking the most goals in the regular season three times, (2000, 2001 and 2003), and has twice kicked more than 100 goals in a season (109 in 2000 and 105 in 2001).

Lloyd was a member of Essendon's 2000 premiership team, and has been vice captain of Essendon since the 2000 season. 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. This is despite the fact he was only 24 at the time, and only 7 seasons into his playing career.

As of end of the 2005 season, Lloyd had played 209 games and kicked 754 goals at AFL level.

Captaincy

On September 27, 2005, Lloyd was announced as the new Essendon captain for AFL Season 2006 replacing James Hird who had held that position since 1998.

On Sunday 16th April, 2006, in the Round 3 clash against the Western Bulldogs, Lloyd injured his hamstring which took him off the field for the remainder of the game. It was expected that Lloyd would miss four to five matches, but scans later revealed that he would miss the rest of the 2006 home-and-away season. Former captain, James Hird, was selected to replace Lloyd as captain of the club for the traditional ANZAC Day Clash between Essendon and Collingwood at the MCG. Hird then again captained Essendon's Round 5 clash against Hawthorn. His permanent replacement for 2006 was later named as youngster, David Hille.

Personal Life

Lloyd is married to his childhood sweetheart Lisa-Marie Lloyd (nee Caparello), known as Lisa, who has appeared on The Footy Show's singing competition, "Screamers". Lisa was also a regular presenter on Fox Footy's "Living With Footballers" before the show was cancelled at the end of 2004. She has studied singing and now works as a Hyperbaric Technician.

Lloyd and Lisa married on 9th November 2002 at Xavier College Chapel. They were first introduced by a mutual friend at a party when they were in Year 12 and have been together ever since.

On the 20th June 2006 it was announced that Lloyd and Lisa are expecting their first child in December 2006.

Lloyd has 2 older brothers, Simon, who is the High Performance Manager at the Collingwood Football Club, and Brad, who is the captain of the Willimastown Football Club, and one older sister, Kylie who is the Unit Manager at The Footy Show. His parents are John and Bev Lloyd. John played 29 games for the Carlton Football Club from 1965-1967.

Trivia

He barracked for Fitzroy Football Club when he was young because in the first game he went to Bernie Quinlan kicked 9 goals.

When he proposed to Lisa at the end of 2001 he filled his city apartment with roses.

Fellow Essendon Football Club player Mark McVeigh was one of his groomsmen on his wedding day - brother Brad was the best man and other brother Simon was his third groomsmen.

His first job was working at Hoyts Candy Bar at Highpoint Shopping Center.

His favourite food is Lisa's lasange.

He co-hosted childrens AFL show Auskick'n Around on Fox Footy Channel with Brad Johnson from the Western Bulldogs Football Club before it was cancelled at the end of 2005.

External links

1978 births | Living people | Essendon Bombers players | Australian rules footballers | Champions of Essendon | All-Australians | Coleman Medal winners | Former students of St. Bernard's College, Melbourne