Proof Matthew Lloyd is footy’s Nostradamus after he predicted Essendon’s shocking fall last year

Veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson was shocked when former Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd said the Bombers would be better off missing the finals in 2021. Turns out, he was right.

The pair had an infamous standoff on an episode of Footy on Nine over the Bombers, with Lloyd saying they might be better off missing the finals so they don’t ‘get carried away with themselves’.

‘Essendon fans around the country do not want to hear that kind of negative publicity,’ Wilson fired back at Lloyd.

Fast forward to 2022 and the Bombers have just one win from five starts, got hammered by 48 points at home by Fremantle on the weekend and their finals hopes are already on life support.  

‘I remember debating this with Caro. She said it was a silly thing that I said. I said missing the finals might be a good thing for Essendon,’ Lloyd said on 3AW on Monday.

‘She said, ‘That’s ridiculous, what do you mean by that?’ and I said, ‘I don’t want Essendon thinking they are better than they are, because they’ve got a lot of work to do’.

‘You make a final and think you’re going to just evolve into winning a final but other teams work hard and improve more than you do.

‘My expectation was they’d win a final this year and break that long drought and that looks highly unlikely now.’

Bombers captain Dyson Heppell consoles Ben Hobbs after their loss to the Dockers at Marvel Stadium on Sunday

Lloyd said he rarely goes to AFL games as a non-working spectator, but took the time to go to Marvel Stadium on the weekend to watch a game he expected the Bombers to win.

What he ended up watching was ‘as disappointing as it gets’.  

‘I think the Dockers had only beaten Essendon twice in Melbourne in their whole history so it’s not something that happens too often.

‘It was always a win we put down and the Dockers are travelling well but I still thought Essendon should believe that they would win that game at Marvel Stadium.

‘But they were outworked badly in the midfield. Fremantle, when they had the ball, they spread hard and Essendon just didn’t defend the ground very well.

‘I thought when they went inside 50 there was really no method to it whatsoever, it was sitting on Peter Wright’s head, he was well beat by Alex Pearce.

‘Then the ball would go out far too easily.

‘So I thought it was a combination of everything, they were beaten strategy-wise, they were beaten for effort, there was a lack of accountability amongst the players for what they did.

‘That was as bad as it gets and it was a flattering scoreline in the end with the three cheap goals that they got at the end of the match.’

After steering Essendon to the AFL finals in 2021, coach Ben Rutten is under pressure this season following a 1-4 start 

Now Lloyd has tipped the acid on coach Ben Rutten and captain Dyson Heppell for creating a culture where the Bombers are not playing ‘trustworthy footy’.

‘I’d have to put a fair bit on the coaching panel to be honest. Essendon aren’t playing a brand of football that you could trust and that stems from the top,’ he said.

‘That stems from the expectations that you have of your players and that they understand if they don’t deliver it, well they won’t get picked or they are going to get challenged hard.

‘That is hard to change at rounds three, four and five. That has got to come over your whole off-season like Michael Voss has done at Carlton.

‘I think it is a combination of everything but I think I would be looking at the leaders in Heppell and Rutten to say OK, why aren’t they playing in a way that will [produce] trustworthy footy?’