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Player Watch #44 Jake Lloyd

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Jake Lloyd

Player Profile
Jake Lloyd is a ball magnet, an endurance machine, a clean user of the footy and a calming influence on the Sydney Swans’ half-back line. The former rookie-listed Swan averaged 27.22 disposals per match between 2016 and 2019 and won the club’s 2018 Bob Skilton Medal. Lloyd became the quickest Swan in history to reach 100 senior games when he ran out against Hawthorn at the MCG in Round 8, 2018. He was then recognised as one of the best players in the league when he was selected for Victoria in the State of Origin match for bushfire relief in February 2019. Draft history: 2013 Rookie Draft selection (Sydney) No. 15; 2014 AFL Draft rookie elevation (Sydney).

Jake Lloyd

DOB: 20 September 1993
DEBUT: 2013
DRAFT: 2014
RECRUITED FROM: Horsham Demons (Vic)/North Ballarat U18

www.sydneyswans.com.au

Jake Lloyd | AFL

Follow Jake Lloyd's progress through AFL
www.sydneyswans.com.au www.sydneyswans.com.au
 
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Kirkswan said:
No offence intended, but I think that 'vulnerable' is word used by supporters only... I'm pretty sure the club doesn't take that view. The supporters have bagged him throughout his career as being not much at all, just another B grader, but that just doesn't stack up with his actual games...

He's played 200+ games, been All Australian, won two B&Fs (18 & 20), plays the role he's asked to... and is totally reliable.
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100% agree. He was "vulnerable" only in the sense that the team was playing exceptionally, had some great players to return and he wasn't making his typical impact - which made him fair game for people like us. Don't imagine his spot in the team really ever was at risk.
 
Bumping from page 4 of the forum.
Which in a way encapsulates Lloyd's understated unflustered under the radar game style.

Leading possession winner for us today, 14 marks, 4 R50s, 5 I50s, nice goal and game high 888 metres gained (only 1 other player from either side (Warner) had more than 500).

He's not a contested possession winner, but that outlet player who you sense he will tend to make the right choices with ball in hand.
I thought incredibly important for us throughout today. :thumbsu:
 
hairy biker said:
Bumping from page 4 of the forum.
Which in a way encapsulates Lloyd's understated unflustered under the radar game style.

Leading possession winner for us today, 14 marks, 4 R50s, 5 I50s, nice goal and game high 888 metres gained (only 1 other player from either side (Warner) had more than 500).

He's not a contested possession winner, but that outlet player who you sense he will tend to make the right choices with ball in hand.
I thought incredibly important for us throughout today. :thumbsu:
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Yep. Outstanding game today. Always uses the ball so well.
 

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Oh and I would die for Jake Lloyd.
 

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The King! said:
I like Lloyd as a player way more than the skilton medal winning years, Or my tastes just changed.

Loving the goals
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Probably because we're putting his attributes to better use now. Has had a great career but could've had an even better one.
 
The King! said:
I like Lloyd as a player way more than the skilton medal winning years, Or my tastes just changed.

Loving the goals
Click to expand...
He's been more effective to the eye of the common man back on the wing than in defence. His skill at finding and using space has shone out.
 
LONG POST INCOMING

I'm thinking about Jake Lllllloooyyyyddd.

I think he is at an interesting junction in his career, where things could very realistically go downhill, and quite rapidly, a la Parker, or he could actually go up another level, which is odd to think about for a player who has already played nearly 250 games and won a B&F twice.

Logic says his performance should start to decline now that he is 31, and it arguably already did in 2024. JPK aside, I think even Lloyd's toughest critics would have to admit he has been our most consistent player of the last decade, just delivering every single week, regardless of whether you loved what he delivered or not. However in 2024 I thought he was a bit more unreliable. Still played some very, very good footy, but also had some games where maybe the grind of a decade straight barely missing a game was maybe starting to show. He just stopped becoming that guy who you knew what you'd get from every single week.

That could be even more the case in 2025, with a bunch of spritely young flankers all pushing down the door, some possessing more dynamic speed than Lloyd and now even just as good tanks as Lloyd, which was once his domain. In short, the game's evolution has meant that where Lloyd ten years ago might've been in our top 3 most dynamic players, he's now arguably not even in the top half in our team.

That be the way footy goes and I don't think Lloyd would be all that shocked by that reality, either.

But Lloyd played some outstanding footy last year on the wing. He reminded us of the hard-running, composed and attacking player that he seemed on track to be early in his career, before we tried to... I don't even know?? Make him the next Nick Smith? Try to win him a Supercoach points prize with kick-ins? No idea.

I thought he was one of our top five performers across the finals series (obviously with the GF, that is limited to a whopping two games...) His goals where he'd just get the ball about 60 out and just run into 50 and slot it through so accurately the goal umpire wouldn't move a muscle were a joy to watch, and he just seemed to be more skilful and creative than he'd been in years having the freedom to run around and win the ball at will, and not just in a dinky 15m kick-to-the-back-pocket kind of way. And seeing him run and carry is so smooth. We have a lot of players capable of run and carry but I can't explain why, but Lloyd looks so fluent and effortless when he does it.

Which brings me to where I think he COULD (doesn't mean will) be even better in 2025. Last pre-season he trained exclusively as a half-back, his usual role for the better part of the last decade. He said in an interview he'd done no training on the wing but was enjoying it nonetheless. So there is potential for him to build on that form he showed at times last year on the wing. If he spends the summer actually training in that hard-running wing role, getting the km's in, working with the mids and leading forwards, well who knows what he could be capable of?

I think Gulden & McInerney are the non-negotiables on the wing. They're younger than Lloyd and frankly better than Lloyd at this stage. But there needs to be a third winger in the rotation, so that spot is up for grabs. Both Warners are dynamic options. Roberts is an option if we want to work him up into the mids more. Florent is an option if we want to find a spot for him. Campbell is an option if he can get it together.

But write off the veteran champion at your own peril.

It could be the season things start to unravel for Lloyd's prospects. But it could also be the season where he successfully reinvents himself and adds another few years onto his career working in tandem with two young, terrific wingmen. I think we should all be rooting for the latter to happen, regardless of how maligned (unfairly so, IMO) he has been over the journey. A veteran just hitting the cliff and being of no real value anymore doesn't serve the club's fortunes in any way.
 

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