Bomber coach Kevin Sheedy today has defended recent criticism of his star forward Matthew Lloyd. ""(Fraser) Gehrig is having a pretty good season and he’s got a pretty good team up in front of him that are playing better than us at the moment. Put Matthew Lloyd down in front of the St Kilda team and he would be probably another 15 goals ahead,"" Sheedy said.

Lloyd has kicked 32 goals form nine games this year, taking his overall goal tally to 631 goals from 174 matches. Sheedy did concede the Lloyd’s kicking for goal last Saturday against Geelong was disappointing. The triple Coleman Medallist uncharacteristically booted 2.4.

""He missed some goals last week that he should have got. He probably should have kicked five goals,"" he said. ""His accuracy has probably harmed him a little bit this season. He’s at 66 per cent I think at the moment. Normally it is about 85 per cent.""

The factor that can go unnoticed with Lloyd is the number of goals he creates. The 26-year-old is renowned for his work at ground level and keeping the ball in the forward 50m arc. Last Saturday night against Geelong Lloyd could have easily added a few more goals to his tally that he helped create. The classic example is the long goal he booted that Nathan Lovett-Murray kicked through on the goal line.

If Lloyd’s only problem is accuracy and he still creates enough chances, then it will only be a matter of time before we see the famous number 18 kicking a bag of goals.