Essendon great Matthew Lloyd believes opposition sides don’t respect the Bombers due to a lack of on-field toughness.
Pointing directly to an incident between Sydney’s Luke Parker and Essendon’s Dylan Shiel in Saturday’s 58-point loss - where the Swan taunted the Bomber by staring at him and shrugging his shoulders multiple times after kicking a goal - Lloyd called for his former club to stand up to their rivals physically.
As Lloyd believes Shiel was “disrespected” in that moment, he says the midfielder should’ve looked to go at Parker by cannoning into him in the next contest.
“You never, ever want to be walked over in life or disrespected in any way. I thought Dylan Shiel was disrespected in a way you never wanted to be treated as a footballer,” Lloyd said on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
“This was the next contest, I would’ve ploughed straight thorough Parker here, got him to the ground and said, ‘You will never, ever treat me like that again’.
“I’d cannon into him. If you don’t give away a free kick, even better ... Dylan Shiel isn’t that type of player to do it, but I would’ve loved for someone else to do it on his behalf.
“I think that will be something Ben Rutten will show and say this is how you are viewed Dylan and this is how us as a team are being viewed. Where’s the nastiness gone?”
On top of being taunted, Lloyd believes the Bombers aren’t defending hard enough which was proven as Sydney notched 56 tackles to Essendon’s 30.
“You can be not as talented as another team, but effort doesn’t come into it - 30 tackles says it all, a lack of defence says it all,” Lloyd said.
“They’re too nice and there’s no ruthless streak whatsoever. I think the side would’ve loved to have seen him (Shiel) bowl him (Parker) over.
“I’m not talking about knocking someone into tomorrow, I’m talking about making a statement that you’re not going to be walked all over and they are being walked all over.”
Essendon will be desperate to respond when they face Richmond in Dreamtime at the ‘G on Saturday night.
"I would have plowed straight through Parker here and said, 'You will never ever treat me like that again.'" 🔥
— Footy on Nine (@FootyonNine) May 15, 2022
A passionate @MatthewLloyd18 says the lack of response to Luke Parker's taunting of Dylan Shiel shows the Bombers are being walked all over. #9AFLSFS | @Channel9 pic.twitter.com/WWKNg8ZTf2