Matthew Richardson and Matthew Lloyd aren’t just two of the greatest forwards of their generation, the famous duo are two of the best goalkickers we have ever seen. Combining to boot over 1,700 goals in the late 90’s/early 00’s, both ‘Richo’ and ‘Lloydy’ became household names for AFL fans, following in their father’s footsteps as successful pro footballers. Their playing careers, and now their media endeavours, are somewhat intertwined and both Richardson and Lloyd will forever be remembered as AFL legends. However, when we stack their accomplishments next to one another and compare their footballing resumes, only one of them can claim the honour of producing a better AFL career.
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ALL THE NUMBERS
LLOYD – 270 games, 15 seasons, 1 premiership, 18 finals, 926 goals, 424 behinds, 97 Brownlow votes, 13.04 disposals per game
RICHARDSON – 282 games, 17 seasons, 3 finals, 800 goals, 551 behinds, 140 Brownlow votes, 14.05 disposals per game
There aren’t many players that have kicked more snags in V/AFL history than this famous pair of Matthew’s. Only 12 players in the history of the game have 800 career goals to their name, with Lloyd checking in 8th all-time for his 926 majors. The Essendon legend may have more goals on his resume than Richardson, however his Tigers counterpart was deployed much further up the ground for large stretches of his career. That led to Richo chalking up more career disposals and Brownlow votes – culminating in a 3rd place finish at the Charlie count in 2008. It’s tight, but with the exception of finals appearances and goal accuracy, Richardson has Lloyd covered in every other major stat tally.
Edge: Richardson
FINALS SUCCESS
There is no contest here. Matthew Richardson was forced to wait until the 142nd game of his career in 2001 before he tasted finals action – having missed the Tigers’ finals campaign during the 1995 season after rupturing his ACL in Round 9. Matthew Lloyd, on the other hand, played a final in just his 4th career match and managed to qualify for finals action in nine of his first 10 pro seasons. In that stretch, he played in two Grand Finals and managed to kick 52 goals across 18 postseason games. Featuring in six times as many finals as his Richmond rival means that Lloyd cakewalks to a victory in this category.
Edge: Lloyd
Image from twitter.com
BEST MOMENT/GAME
LLOYD – 1999 Round 3
Matthew Lloyd achieved great heights during his 15 seasons as a Bomber. Lloyd won a Goal of the Year award in 2007, claimed Mark of the Year honours in 2008 and even kicked five goals in the 2001 decider – although, coming up short against Brisbane meant I decided to look elsewhere for his greatest single game. That accomplishment came in April of ’99 when an unstoppable Matthew Lloyd jagged a career-best 13 goals against a hapless Swans outfit. Not only was 13.4 Lloyd’s greatest return in front of goal, but his point total for the game (82) single-handedly outscored Sydney’s entire team (68). There aren’t many footballers at any level that can make that claim.
RICHARDSON – 2006 Round 21
A lack of appearances in the finals didn’t stop Richo from producing some amazing individual efforts during his playing days. The Richmond cult hero kicked at least seven goals on 11 different occasions, with his most noteworthy haul of 10 coming against the Bulldogs back in 2004. A few years later came Richardson’s ‘best’ game in my opinion, with the hulking full forward at the peak of his powers against none other than Lloyd’s Bombers. On that day in ’06, with the Tigers still fighting to stay in the finals mix, Richo gathered 24 disposals, hauled in 19 marks and kicked a whopping 9.5 in front of goal. Richmond wasn’t able to claw their way into the top-8 that year, but without Richardson’s heroics, they would’ve been finished much earlier in the season.
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Richo did a lot of heavy lifting to keep the Tigers in games throughout his career, however, it’s hard to go past Lloyd for the W in this category. Gary Ablett Snr and John Longmire are the only players to kick more goals in a single game at the MCG and Lloyd’s day out against the Swans was somewhat of a coming-out party for the Bombers champion. There isn’t a great divide between Lloyd’s best game (26 touches, 14 marks and 13.4 in front of goal) and Richardson’s (24 touches, 19 marks and 9.5 in front of goal) – but I think the Essendon forward deserves the nod.
Edge: Lloyd
AWARDS
It’s hard to make a clear separation between this duo when we compare their individual accolades. Lloydy has Richo covered for All-Australian appearances (5 to 3) and Coleman Medals (3 to 0), although the Richmond legend has his rival covered for B&F wins (1 to 0) and leading goalkicker awards at their respective clubs (13 to 12). Richardson owns an unwanted record having kicked the most goals in V/AFL history without winning a single Coleman Medal, while also kicking more goals than any other player at the MCG (464). He only narrowly beats out Lloyd (461) who did play 19 fewer matches at the home of football, for what it’s worth. This might be the tightest category in this whole article and claiming a Jim Synes Medal in 2001, plus joining a rare club with both a Goal and Mark of the Year W during his career, gives Matthew Lloyd the edge in this one.
Edge: Lloyd (Just)
IMPACT/LEGACY
Matthew Richardson is one of, if not, the most popular AFL player of all time. No offence to Matthew Lloyd, who generated more than his fair share of fans during his playing days, but Richo was built different. His cult hero status grew with every season he played at Tigerland – if you don’t believe me, look no further than the 2008 Brownlow count when the entire room was cheering for Richardson to pull off the upset only to finish 3rd behind Adam Cooney and Simon Black.
Most footy fans shared empathy towards Richo and his Tigers as they struggled to break through in September during his playing days, however, almost everyone took joy in seeing his reaction to Richmond’s drought-breaking flag in 2017. Both Matthew’s have gone on to become household media names in their post-playing career, but Lloyd doesn’t stand much of a chance trying to compete against a fan favourite like Richardson.
Edge: Richardson
VERDICT – Matthew Lloyd
If you asked 10 people who had a better career out of this famous footballing pair, 8, 9, or maybe all 10 would likely answer Matthew Lloyd. As stated already, experiencing finals success from the moment he arrived at Essendon helped Lloyd establish himself as one of the best forward players we have ever seen. That being said, some would make the case for Matthew Richardson as a better ‘footballer’ than his Bombers rival thanks to his positional versatility. Richo played a different role in the back end of his career, featuring heavily on a wing at times which led to the Tigers’ great averaging 18.5 disposals and 11.1 marks and polling 28 Brownlow votes from the final 25 games of his AFL journey.
While he did touch the footy with more frequency in the twilight of his playing days, that doesn’t necessarily put Richardson ahead of Lloyd when stacking their career resumes against one another. Some of Lloyd’s career stats are inflated by the success he experienced throughout his career – 57.8% win rate compared to Richardson’s 41.5% – although I think it’s fair to say he was the better threat in front of goal. At the end of the day, if we are comparing the careers of two key forwards, their return in front of the big sticks is a pretty good indicator of who reigned supreme. Richardson will go down as the more popular player from the early 21st century and most footy fans still love Richo. However, Matthew Lloyd deserves the edge over his Tigers counterpart as the owner of a more impressive AFL resume during his playing career.