Inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, the 270-game, 926-goal champion remembered the day that turned his football life around.
A young clean-skin who had never been properly tested at junior level, Lloyd was earning a reputation among AFL defenders as a player who could be ruffled by physical intimidation, as former Collingwood full-back Craig Kelly recalled.
"I think a few of the boys thought they could touch him up a bit," Kelly told AFL.com.au.
"After [Tony] Lockett and [Jason] Dunstall and those guys who were seriously hard units, he was the next true full forward, and at that point in time he wasn't the calibre of those boys."
During his 42nd career match, in round six, 1998 against the Western Bulldogs at Optus Oval, Lloyd was picked up by Steven Kretiuk, and put through a nightmarish afternoon of football.
"He just terrorised me," Lloyd said.
"It was that bad that 'Sheeds' (then-Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy) sent Dean Wallis to stand with me in the forward pocket just to try and look after me."
Lloyd had four kicks and booted two goals for the game, and the Bombers lost by nine points.
"I walked off trying to hold back the tears," he said.
"Sheeds did his after-match address as he always did, and then I got a tap on the shoulder from Mark Harvey.
"He said, 'Follow me into this room'. Wallis came in as well.
"I thought they were going to put the arm around me and say, 'Don't worry young fella, we've all gone through that'.
"But they actually sat me down and said, 'I can see you being run out of the game within the next 12 to 24 months if you handle yourself like that ever again'.
"They were pretty right. I reckon for the next four or five weeks I had defenders doing the same thing, trying to terrorise me.
"But Sheeds gave me the confidence to try and throw my weight around by saying, 'Go for it. You enjoy the hip and shoulder. Start showing you mean business, and kick the goals with it'.
"He was spot on.
"Within four or five weeks that had gone and it never happened again."
Lloyd's aggression at times landed him in hot water at the Tribunal, and he earned the nickname 'The Velvet Sledgehammer'.
He finished his career with a six-week suspension for a high bump on Hawthorn's Brad Sewell in the final round of 2009, in a match to decide who would play in the finals.
But Kelly said his former foe should have no regrets.
"It just goes to show, you get good advice as a young kid if you're at a good club, and he did what he had to do," Kelly said.
"And that's what he had to do to become a great footballer.
"Some of those things he did later in his career, I reckon I'd have done exactly the same."
