Geelong have appointed Simon Lloyd as their new head of football, the Cats staffer promoted to fill the role vacated by Steve Hocking who joins the AFL as football operations manager.
As forecast by Fairfax Media last week, Lloyd - the older brother of former Essendon champion forward Matthew Lloyd - will take up the position at the end of the season after being Geelong's director of coaching since last year.
Geelong chief executive Brian Cook said Lloyd, who was a member of Fremantle's coaching staff for six years, would bring valuable experience to the senior club role.
"We have seen Simon's quality first hand over the past two years, and believe he will excel in this role. His relationship building, knowledge of the game and values will serve him well as the leader of the football department and an integral part of our executive leadership group," Cook said.
Lloyd played under-19 football with Carlton and also represented Williamstown in 87 VFA games for the Seagulls in the early 1990s. He then spent time at other AFL clubs in a variety of rules, including Collingwood's high performance manager, psychologist and specialist coach before moving across to Hawthorn.
Geelong were forced to restructure their football department after Hocking made the jump from clubland to the highly sought after senior AFL role. Simon Lethlean quit as the AFL's football operations manager this season after barely six months in the job after details of an affair with a female colleague were made public.
