Essendon spearhead Matthew Lloyd has made a surge on the goal kicking leaderboard in recent weeks. St Kilda's Fraser Gehrig has sported a comfortable lead for the majority of the season. However, after kicking just one goal in the past two weeks, his 13-goal lead has quickly diminished. Lloyd is just two goals off the pace after booting five goals last Saturday night and a bag of seven the week before against Hawthorn.
Lloyd's form has been particularly good over the past five weeks. Not only has the 26-year-old booted 23 majors, he has been leading strongly and taken some impressive grabs. ""It has been a gradual build up for me so far. I feel like the last month has been the best month of the year for me for consistency and form. I am getting back to the way I like to play and leading hard,"" Lloyd said.
After Round 12, Lloyd's goal kicking tally for the season is 49. At the same time last season he had booted 42 and the previous year, he had contributed 21 goals. A hand injury in 2002, was the reason for the lower goal tally. ""I am ahead of where I have been in past seasons because I have been able to play every game. I am pretty happy at where things are at, at the moment,"" Lloyd said.
Despite missing Damian Cupido for the first half of the season, Essendon has been able to find goals from other sources. This has eased the burden and pressure on Lloyd to kick a bag full each week. Twenty-five players have contributed on the scoreboard to date. Scott Lucas has booted 20 goals - the same figure at Cupido at this point last season. Nathan Lovett-Murray and James Hird have chipped in for 16 majors each and the team has found a goal scorer in Dean Solomon. Solomon has pushed forward and has kicked a total of 14 goals.
With 10 home and away games remaining, the battle for the Coleman medal is hotting up. Gehrig leads Lloyd by two goals and Carlton's Brendan Fevola is breathing down Lloyd's neck after kicking six on the weekend. David Neitz and Warren Tredrea are also still in the mix. They are five goals behind Fevola on 40 majors for the season.
Lloyd's past five weeks:
Round 11 v Hawthorn - seven goals
Round 10 v Fremantle - five goals
Round 9 v Geelong - two goals
Round 8 v Adelaide - four goals
Matthew Lloyd's goal kicking record for past five years from Round 1 - 12:
2003 - 42 goals
2002 - 21goals
2001 - 50 goals
2000 - 58 goals
AFL goal kicking leaderboard - up to Round 12, 2004:
Fraser Gehrig - 51 goals
Matthew Lloyd - 49 goals
Brendan Fevola - 45 goals
David Neitz - 40 goals
Warren Tredra - 40 goals
Barry Hall - 39 goals
