Star Bomber Matthew Lloyd says tomorrow afternoon’s match against Sydney gives Essendon the opportunity to announce itself as a genuine contender in 2004. ""The three sides we have beaten aren’t in the top eight at the moment. It is about time we beat a side that is top-four material and the Swans have shown they are that over the past 18 months,"" Lloyd said.

Lloyd sat along Sydney spearhead Barry Hall at a pre-match press conference at the MCG this afternoon and both players agreed it was a crunch match.

""Both sides are sitting at 3-2 so it is a huge game for both clubs. They stitched us up in Sydney last year. It has been a long time since we have played Sydney at the MCG so we are really looking forward to it,"" Lloyd said. ""We will learn a lot about where we are at this weekend.""

""We came up against a couple of fair sides in Port Adelaide and St Kilda and we didn’t have a very good run with injury in those games. But we still haven’t played four good quarters in any game this season. We will have to if we are to beat Sydney because they are in the top few sides in the competition. It will be a real test of how far we have come over the past few weeks.""

Sydney suffered a surprise loss to Melbourne last weekend. Hall wasn’t about to offer any excuses – as far as he was concerned Melbourne was the better side.

""I don’t think people are giving Melbourne enough credit – they are a quality side and they out it together on the night. We made a lot of skill errors – the positive is that we know where we went wrong and we can fix it this week,"" he said.

Lloyd said the form of captain James Hird had been as good as he had seen in his time at the club.

""He was in great form last year when he got out on the park and he has taken it to another level this season. I can’t remember that much of his Brownlow medal season – I was pretty young at the time but he is in Brownlow Medal form at the moment and he is doing it at both ends of the ground. It will take a pretty special player to match up on him,"" Lloyd said.

""He is the most consistent player I have played with and one of the best I have ever seen. He just has a real will to impose himself on games and get us over the line. You can’t speak highly enough of him.""

Hall said Sydney had to ensure it didn’t become to focussed on shutting down the likes of Hird and Lloyd.

""They are a quality outfit and we can’t become pre-occupied with (James) Hird and Matthew (Lloyd). If you spend your time worrying about zoning off on someone like Matthew, another player will bob up and hurt you so you have to find the right balance,"" Hall said.

Lloyd said the changing face at the MCG had thrown a few players out – including himself – two weeks ago against Carlton. But he said with each passing week, the players were feeling more comfortable at the venue.

""I felt a lot more comfortable being here last week than the week before. It just takes a bit of getting used to – we will have played here three weeks in a row and that is something we will have in our favour tomorrow afternoon,"" he said.

Lloyd faces a stiff challenge on a number of fronts if he is to add another Coleman Medal to the trophy cabinet this season with the likes of Fraser Gehrig, David Nietz, Warren Tredrea, Brendan Fevola and Hall himself all pushing Lloyd.

Hall admitted spending some time watching videos of his Essendon counterpart during the off season. ""You get tapes of other forwards. I was probably a little bit one-dimensional as far as leading for the ball – I need to turn blokes around and stuff like that and Matthew does that better than anybody,"" Hall said.