Matthew Lloyd, Straight Shooter

Matthew Lloyd at his peak was a goal kicking machine in an era where the power forward was fading from the game. A five-time all Australian, he topped the AFL goal kicking three times in his 270 game career and kicked the ton twice, his first in the Essendon Premiership season of 2000. Born into a football family, it was clear early in his career that he had the ability to surpass his father John's 29 games with Carlton. For a while it looked he would head to Carton as well, but Essendon conjured up a complex deal to secure the talented 16-year-old in the 1994 pre-season draft. Brothers Simon and Brad each played football too and are now involved with the Fremantle Football Club, and sister Kylie works on The Footy Show at Channel 9. His mother Bev, even met his father at the football. Sport, and in particular football, was and remains in the blood. This book is the story of a kid driven by a fear of failure to climb the highest peaks in football. Of a young footballer who taught himself a process to become the most accurate shot for goal in the AFL after a tirade from one his coaches. It is how a boy with natural ability became the captain of the Essendon Football Club, a premiership player and a life member of the AFL. And now it is about the transformation into devoted father and a multi-media expert on AFL when it looked like from the outside his career was cut short before its time; of a testy relationship with his final coach and the bone crunching hit that saw him finish his time as a player on suspension. It looks at how he considered a future with other clubs before deciding to retire on his terms. Above all, it is a brutally honest account of an astonishing career from a man who is a straight shooter in more ways than one.