The triple Coleman Medallist is keen to play wherever he is of most benefit to the team, but said he has worked hard over the pre-season to ensure he is fit enough if required to move up the ground. ""I think full forward is still my best spot but I have got my fitness to a point where I can go out and play at centre half forward when the team needs me to. Coming into the 25 to 30 age bracket where you should be at your peak – I am keen to do whatever is best for the side. It is going to be a mixture of centre half forward and full forward, just depending on who and where we play.
""The way teams come up against us, there is times where you have to be able to be flexible in the way you play. I definitely feel that I have got my fitness at a place where I can do that. I don’t mind and actually look forward to taking on some games at centre half-forward, like I did last year. We just need that player that can rotate with me at centre half forward and full forward and it definitely will happen,"" Lloyd said.
Lloyd has broken the 100-goal milestone twice in his career and finished seven off the ton last season. Each year he aspires to better the amount of goals he has kicked in the previous season, but this season he said he is also aiming to have a bigger physical presence in each game. ""I want to have more impact in games right throughout whether it is creating or kicking the goals and I think that is what Sheeds is looking at as well.""
Due to the nature of the game nowadays, Lloyd said it is harder to kick 100 goals. ""I definitely found last year that it was a tough 93 goals to kick because of the way teams are playing. I think that is why we are finding that there aren’t too many forwards kicking 50 plus goals anymore,"" Lloyd said. ""It is definitely not like the Dunstall, Ablett and Lockett days, it is becoming a game where you can’t be a one position player anymore and that is what I have definitely looked at with my training over the break.""
In the midst of his 10th pre-season with the club, Lloyd is at a career heaviest weight of 94kg. Lloyd tends to drop weight during the season, so he was keen to put on a few extra kilos over the pre-season. ""I will try and maintain the weight for as long as possible but I usually drop to about 91kgs. The key is trying to find ways to keep it on, so I can maintain for late in the season,"" Lloyd said.
Over the years Lloyd has learned to train smarter and said he is conscious of listening to his body, rather than going full steam ahead all the time. He has suffered a number of soft tissue injuries in past pre-seasons and this year to his delight he has stayed injury free. ""As you get older you know your body a lot better and I am learning to train by the I am feeling. If I am feeling great I go for it on the track, but if I am not I maybe hold back a little bit now. I feel I am a lot smarter about how I go about things and it should hold me in good stead for this year.
""The best thing about the pre-season is that you can train hard and not have the pressures and scrutiny on your performance from week to week. That is probably the good part and also not having the soreness in your body, so you can take the training but keep backing up because you are not sore of the knocks. But we are here to perform on weekends, so I am looking forward to the start of the season,"" Lloyd said.
Essendon’s season kicks of against Sydney on Saturday, February 14th at the exhibition match at North Sydney Oval. Lloyd can’t wait to put all the hard work from the pre-season into action. The vice captain is also keen for the new recruits to come into the side and strengthen the line-up. ""There is no reason why we shouldn’t be strong than last year with the additions we have picked up. Alvey, Murphy and Allan have all had great pre-seasons. Obviously it is disappointing to lose Danny (Jacobs) but we will be aiming for a top four spot and we will be disappointed if we don’t finish there.""
Watch Lloyd in action this season when you purchase a 2004 Essendon membership. Click here for more information about how you can join the team.
