Retired Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd admits there is now a gaping hole of experience left in the Bombers' forward line.
Lloyd announced his career was over at a packed media conference at Windy Hill on Wednesday, two months after star forward team-mate Scott Lucas called it quits.
The superstar pair kicked a staggering 1397 goals over 15 seasons and take a combined total of 540 games experience from the team.
Add this to the fact that Lloyd won five All Australian guernseys, three Coleman Medals, was the club's leading goalkicker on 11 occasions and had a remarkable career accuracy rate of 69 percent while Lucas claimed two best-and-fairest awards and topped Essendon's goalkicking in 2006, it becomes even more apparent how significant their departures are.
But Lloyd is confident one of the Bombers' budding key forward prospects in Michael Hurley, Jay Neagle or Scott Gumbleton will step up next year and fill the void.
"I know when Terry Daniher, Simon Madden, Tim Watson, all these champions were leaving the club (in the early 1990s) they didn't know that James Hird was about to arrive, Scott Lucas was about to arrive," said Lloyd.
"Paddy Ryder's done it this year and there'll be someone that will just stand up and take charge (next year)."
"You can't predict when players are ready for retirement and it's just happened that Scott and I walked through the doors together and we're leaving together, it's quite ironic."
Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs were recently rumoured to have been very keen on recruiting Lloyd for next year as speculation over his future at Windy Hill continued to mount as the weeks rolled on without resolution.
But the 2000 premiership full forward dismissed any chance he'd follow in the footsteps of Mal Michael, Matthew Clarke and Paul Salmon and come out of retirement to play for another club.
"They're wasting their time," said Lloyd who was the third-youngest player in history to get to 700 goals. "Once I got here, I've had nothing but respect shown to me and I've shown respect to the club and I've only ever wanted to play for one club."
Lloyd said he now intends to continue working in the media and might also take up a role with the AFL academy.
Outgoing Essendon managing director Peter Jackson said the club would hold a tribute dinner for both Lloyd and Lucas next year and the pair would do a lap of honour at the Bombers' first home game given they were denied a farewell match.
Jackson also revealed the club would lobby Etihad Stadium management to change either the Coventry end or the Lockett end of the ground to the Lloyd end during Essendon home matches.