Matthew Lloyd

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

Lloyd is renowned as one of the best kicks for goal ever to play the game. He rarely misses set shots inside the 50 metre arc, and is a long enough kick to score from even further out. This goalscoring accuracy has been a key part to his game, and has enabled him to top the Essendon goal scoring for eight consecutive seasons from 1997 - 2004.

Many football observers expected Lloyd to be a star of the game even before he made his debut in 1995. He scored a goal with his first kick in league football, setting the trend for what has followed. 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, 2003), and has twice kicked more than 100 goals in a season (109 in 2000 and 105 in 2001).

Lloyd has been vice captain of Essendon since the 2000 season, and it is expected he will take over as captain once James Hird retires. Underlining the respect he is held in at Essendon, in 2002 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 in all likelihood only half way through his career.

To the end of the 2004 season, Lloyd had played 185 games and kicked 695 goals.