You mean the three years we didn't have a ruckmen and preceded to lose Ling, Chapman, Corey, Kelly, later S.J either from the midfield we saw us dropped off in contested possessions.....count them that's five All Australians (Ottens is six) and you wonder why we dropped off in contested possessions.
We made the finals despite not having a ruckmen, despite not having a midfield that could win contested ball. When every sane footy analyst said it was an end of an era we hung on. That's just good coaching!!!
It could be Lloyd took all the defensive structures and now Freo have none left. As I said I think that's dubious hearsay. Or it could be Freo don't have their 211cm Ruckmen available.
Stats do lie when not put in context. And the context here IMO is the availability of ruckmen rather than the movement of "the consented ball whisperer" (Lloyd).
2011 Geelong 9th hit out & 3rd CP, Freo 7th HO & 10th CP
2012 Geelong 14th hit outs & 12th CP, Freo 3rd HO & 4th CP
2013 Geelong 16th hit outs & 9th CP, Freo 7th HO & 10th CP
2014 Geelong 10th hit outs & 13th CP, Freo 1st HO & 1st CP
2015 Geelong 18th hit outs & 13th CP , Freo 1st HO & 1st CP
2016 Geelong 5th hit outs & 5th in CP, Freo 13th HO & 13th CP
HO= hit outs CP= contested possessions
So which set of stats makes more sense. Lloyd moving or changes in midfield/ruck talent.