{"id":409192,"date":"2024-07-03T22:33:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T22:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=409192"},"modified":"2024-07-04T03:08:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T03:08:23","slug":"legends-huge-call-on-struggling-800k-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=409192","title":{"rendered":"Legend's huge call on struggling $800k star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Lloyd<\/a> has defe\ufeffnded luckless St Kilda<\/a> key forward Max King, after a poor showing in his 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

It comes after the club confirmed King's season is over, having suffered a posterior cruciate ligament injury against Port Adelaide in round 16<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old was injured before half time but remained on the field to play out the two-point loss to the Power.<\/p>\n

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It's a crucial blow to the Saints, as they sit in 15th with a 5-10 record after 16 rounds.\ufeff<\/p>\n

King kicked just 17 goals during his shortened 2024 campaign, with questions being raised around his form and ability to shake off key defenders.<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Lloyd, who coached King when he was a junior\ufeff, leapt to his defence.<\/p>\n

"I still have the belief that \ufeffhe can be the best forward in the game, at some part of his career," he said on Nine's Footy Classified<\/em> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

"A lot at home might laugh and go, 'you're kidding aren't you? Look at the way he's been playing'."<\/p>\n

The Essendon great sees the injury as a chance for King to reset and return next season even better than before.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It's probably not a bad thing, a circuit breaker, that you can be injured and go, 'OK, I can take a deep breath and set myself for next year'," Lloyd said.<\/p>\n

\"Lloyd's<\/p>\n

But King's biggest hurdle stems from within, says Lloyd, who believes he must first overcome his mental barriers before his fitness can improve.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I know that he's frustrated that he hasn't shown the foo\ufeffty world what he's capable of," he said.<\/p>\n

"But I know a competitor. I know a great competitor. That's now been questioned of him.<\/p>\n

"He's got a mental competitiveness to him, a physical competitiveness.<\/p>\n

"He wants that more badly than anyone I've ever seen."<\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

According to St Kilda's manager of football, David Mission, the strength work has already begun.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"He's really dived into his strength work. This will give us an opportunity to really double down on his leg strength," Mission said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Footy 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><\/p>\n

Eddie McGuire backed the comments.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"He's got eight months on full pay to come out and terrorise the competition," McGuire said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew Lloyd has defe\ufeffnded luckless St Kilda key forward Max King, after a poor showing in his 2024 campaign. It comes after the club confirmed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":409194,"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\/409192"}],"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=409192"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409198,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409192\/revisions\/409198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/409194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=409192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=409192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=409192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}