{"id":313634,"date":"2023-07-04T03:36:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T03:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=313634"},"modified":"2023-07-04T04:58:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T04:58:36","slug":"go-all-in-lloyd-hatches-plan-to-replace-dons-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=313634","title":{"rendered":"'Go all in': Lloyd hatches plan to replace Dons star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon<\/a> champion Matthew Lloyd<\/a> says the Bombers' midfield is already stacked and they must avoid searching for another cog, if out-of-contract star Darcy Parish decides to leave the club at season's end.<\/p>\n

Lloyd\ufeff said Essendon's middle men have already proven themselves so far this season, urging the eighth-placed Bombers to go searching for a key position big man instead.<\/p>\n

"I'd wait and go all in to see if I could get a star centre half back or a star centre half forward, before \ufeffI sign up another midfielder," Lloyd said on Nine's Footy Classified<\/em> on Monday night.<\/p>\n

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\"Darcy<\/p>\n

"The midfield's there with [Ben] Hobbs and [Archie] Perkins and these guys. They're set there."<\/p>\n

It comes as out-of-contract Parish, an ex-Geelong Falcon, has been linked to a move to the Cats in free agency at season's end.<\/p>\n

But Lloyd says the prospective move shouldn't worry the Bombers, whose midfield is already full of good young talent.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"I think they can cover a midfielder like him," Lloyd said.<\/p>\n

"I love what Hobbs is doing in the midfield. I love what [Jye] Caldwell does and Archie Perkins."<\/p>\n

Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes backed Lloyd's analysis of Parish, saying the Bombers won't miss the 134-gamer, despite his prolific 29 disposals in his side's four-point loss to Port Adelaide after the siren<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\ufeffFooty Classified is now available as a podcast! Subscribe\/follow via<\/strong><\/em> Apple<\/strong><\/em><\/a>,<\/strong><\/em> Spotify<\/strong><\/em><\/a> or<\/strong><\/em> Google Podcasts<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

"I think his ball use lets him down," Cornes said on Footy Classified.<\/em><\/p>\n

"You don't want to lose very good players, but even in the last quarter on the weekend, his ball use let him down." \ufeff<\/p>\n

Essendon, who are sitting in equal seventh, have recorded eight wins and seven losses this year, one win more than during their entire 2022 campaign. \ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeffReplying to Caroline Wilson's question about the Bombers' finals chances, Lloyd said 2023 feels different for head coach Brad Scott's men.<\/p>\n

"This year, Caro, I believe in the coach far more than I have in the past," Lloyd said.<\/p>\n

\"Archie<\/p>\n

"What I thought would have been a false dawn in the past, whereas at the moment, I would be more than happy for them to play finals, because they've matched every top team there is.<\/p>\n

"That's the substantial game plan they play."<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe Bombers host the Adelaide Crows, who sit just above them on the AFL ladder by percentage, in a must-win clash to keep their finals hopes alive on Sunday at Marvel Stadium.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd says the Bombers' midfield is already stacked and they must avoid searching for another cog, if out-of-contract star Darcy Parish decides […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":313636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313634"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313640,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313634\/revisions\/313640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/313636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}