IF THE name Matthew Lloyd came up in a word association test, if you didn't answer spearhead or straight-shooter, chances are you'd say Essendon.

Similarly, if the name Peter Daicos didn't make marvel or genius pop into your head, you'd think of Collingwood.

Lloyd became synonymous with Essendon over 270 games from 1995-2009, just as Daicos had with Collingwood over 250 games from 1979-93.

Both finished their decorated careers as one-club players: Lloyd having kicked a club record 926 goals (seventh on the AFL's all-time list), won three Coleman Medals, captained the Bombers from 2006-09 and played in the 2000 premiership; and Daicos having kicked the fourth most goals for the Magpies (549), won two best and fairests, played in the 1990 premiership and 'invented' the freakish dribble-kick goals that are now commonplace.

But after finishing up with their clubs in their 30s, Lloyd and Daicos both had the chance to continue their careers at other clubs. Ironically, at each other's long-time clubs.
 
Can you imagine how Essendon supporters would have reacted seeing Lloyd in a Magpies jumper? Or Collingwood supporters seeing Daicos in a Bombers jumper?

Safe to say, they'd have found it strange. At the very least.

But this is the prospect Brisbane Lions fans face now that club legend Luke Power has been traded to Greater Western Sydney after 282 games and three premierships. Port Adelaide fans will also have to get used to 2004 premiership players and inspirational on-field leaders Chad Cornes and Dean Brogan running around in the Giants' charcoal, orange and white colours next season after Greater Western Sydney also claimed them in the trade period.

As Melbourne fans will with former skipper and two-time best and fairest winner James McDonald, who is set to revive his AFL career with the Giants after a year out of the game.  

Collectively, these four players have logged 52 seasons and 946 games as one-club players. Traditionally, playing your entire League career at one club has been a badge of honour. Should Power, Cornes, Brogan and McDonald chuck this in for the chance to extend their careers - most likely for just one season - at the AFL's newest club?

Before answering, remember all four veterans were told their time was up by their clubs. 

Similarly, Daicos was delisted by Collingwood after the 1993 season and, although Lloyd retired of his own volition in 2009, he came to that decision after concluding he was no longer part of then-Essendon coach Matthew Knights' on-field plans.

However, Lloyd told AFL.com.au ahead of this year's trade period that his desire to remain a one-club player meant he "never considered" Collingwood's approach. For the same reason, he said he would not have contemplated a move to an expansion club such as GWS.

"As flattering as it is to know there are other clubs that want you, it never entered my mind that I would go and play anywhere else," Lloyd said.

"Finishing as a one-club player meant a lot to me. After 15 years at Essendon I wasn't willing to go to another club."

Lloyd stressed he was not criticising Power, Cornes, Brogan and McDonald, but said there were two additional reasons he would not have moved to Greater Western Sydney if in their position.

First, Lloyd said at their ages - Power turns 32 in January, Cornes 32 in November, Brogan 33 in December and McDonald recently turned 35 - their best football was behind them, just as his had been when he reti red at 31.

"I suppose there can be a rare fairytale where someone goes to another club and is able to finish well or win a premiership," Lloyd said.

"I think Barry Hall was a great success going [to the Western Bulldogs], but I think there have been more cases of players that fail going on in their 30s to another club.
 
"I was always conscious of retiring a year too early rather than a year too late. I wanted to go out playing some reasonable football, not just hanging in there and adding to my games and goals tallies.

"I was just very conscious of the legacy that I left. I didn't want to be running around with people thinking, 'Geez, he's done, he's cooked'."
 
Lloyd said the fact Greater Western Sydney's inaugural squad would almost certainly struggle to win games next season was the other major reason he would not have been attracted to join the new franchise as a 30-plus veteran.

Lloyd said at the end of his career his biggest motivation was to win premierships. As he pondered his future at the end of 2009, Lloyd's belief Essendon could not win a flag in the short-term ultimately influenced his decision to retire. 
 
"Really by the end, all I really wanted to play for was a premiership," Lloyd said. "That's why I know I wouldn't be doing what [Power, Cornes, Brogan and McDonald] are doing, but each to their own.

"I don't see what, apart from getting paid, they really get out of it." 

Unlike Lloyd, Daicos told AFL.com.au that after spending a year out of football he seriously considered an approach from Kevin Sheedy to join Essendon in the Pre-season Draft of late 1994 but, ultimately, got cold feet and did not lodge his draft registration papers.

Daicos said his plan to join Essendon was scuttled when the Bombers indicated they would not go through with their initial plan of taking him with their first Pre-season Draft pick, and other clubs such as Richmond expressed interest in him. Of course, this meant Daicos was no certainly to get to the Bombers and he thought his best chance of making a successful comeback was at a strong on-field team.

In hindsight, Daicos is glad he remained a one-club player.

"Now as I reflect on it, it's nice to just have been known as a Collingwood player," Daicos said.

But Daicos acknowledged he had the luxury of going to a job with 3AW that paid him about the same amount he earned in his final year at Collingwood. Accordingly, he did not begrudge veterans moving to another club to extend their playing careers, or to get a start in coaching as McDonald and, reportedly, Power and Brogan will do in combined playing-coaching roles at the Giants.
 
"With the young guys these days, like Luke Power and James McDonald, their decision is made purely and simply to extend their football careers and, when I say football careers, I'm talking about making the transition into coaching," Daicos said.

"Nowadays, I think for players moving onto another club, the blow of leaving their original club is sweetened a little by the financial incentives that are offered to the players these days."

For Power, Brogan and McDonald, working with Greater Western Sydney coach Sheedy and his senior assistant Mark Williams, who coached Port Adelaide to its 2004 premiership, would be like attending the "Harvard of coaching", Daicos said.

Unlike Lloyd and Daicos, other club icons have bitten the bullet and extended their careers in 'enemy territory'. Doug Hawkins was an intrinsic part of Footscray (since renamed the Western Bulldogs) as Mick Martyn was at North Melbourne, but the fan favourites both found new football homes after being delisted as 34-year-olds. 

At the end of 1994, Hawkins left the Whitten Oval to join Fitzroy after 17 seasons and a then club-record 329 games. Martyn joined former Kangaroos coach Denis Pagan at Carlton in late 2002, after 15 seasons, 287 games and two premierships at North.

Although not forced from his first football home like Hawkins and Martyn, Collingwood midfielder Mick McGuane also made the tough decision to continue his career elsewhere, moving to Carlton in 1997 at 29, after 10 seasons at Victoria Park, in which he played 152 games, including the 1990 premiership. 

Hawkins, Martyn and McGuane all told AFL.com.au there were negatives about leaving your long-time club. For Hawkins, it was strange to play against his former teammates. Martyn and McGuane both noted the deep disappointment of North and Collingwood supporters at their respective moves.

However, all three have no regrets about changing clubs at such a late stage of their careers. Even though all three extended their careers by just one season.

Hawkins played 21 games at Fitzroy under another former Footscray great Bernie Quinlan. At Carlton, McGuane played just the first three games of 1997 before succumbing to injury. And, in 2003, Martyn played the 13 games he needed to reach the 300-game milestone, but had the added satisfaction of following in the footsteps of his grandfather Paddy O'Brien, who played 167 games for Carlton from 1913-25, and uncle Kevin O'Brien, who played nine games for the Blues from 1954-57.

But Hawkins, Martyn and McGuane all supported the decisions of Power, Cornes, Brogan and McDonald to play on at GWS - with some conditions.

McGuane said all four had to believe "in their heart of hearts" that their bodies were still up to the rigours of an AFL season. Martyn said they had to be sure that their form warranted them playing on and that GWS had a defined on-field role for them. All three said the four veterans needed to ask themselves whether they still had a passion and love for football.

"The last thing you want to do is go to a club and pull out halfway through the year and say, 'I don't want to be here. I didn't realise it would be like this'," Martyn said.

Hawkins, Martyn and McGuane all said ideally they would have remained one-club players, and suspected most of today's players would have the same mindset.

However, Hawkins said his year at Fitzroy had not stopped him being remembered as a Bulldogs player, just as a year or two at Greater Western Sydney would not make people forget where Power, Cornes, Brogan and McDonald had come from.

"At the end of the day, Luke Power will always be a Brisbane Lions champion and the same for Chad Cornes at Port Adelaide and James McDonald at Melbourne," Hawkins said.

Similarly, McGuane said his part in Collingwood's 1990 premiership team had created a bond with those teammates and the club that could not be broken. Power's role in the Lions' 2001-03 premierships and those of Cornes and Brogan in the Power's first - and, to date, only - flag would create similar bonds for them, McGuane said.

McGuane and Martyn also said supporters were becoming more conditioned to the fact AFL football was now a business as much as a sport. So, they said, although supporters would never be happy to lose a club great to an opposition club - the Brisbane Lions and Port Adelaide BigFooty fan forums have had their share of bloggers expressing disbelief that Power, Cornes and Brogan would be in Giants jumpers next season - more and more they accepted that playing AFL was a career and players' decisions to change clubs were business decisions.    

"The game is a business now and, although I think in their heart of hearts most players want to stay one-club players, their decisions have become business decisions," McGuane said.

"If clubs can be disloyal and tear up a player's contract and tell him his use-by date is up, players can make decisions for the benefit of themselves and their family and their security.

"And I think the supporters appreciate this." 

Although Greater Western Sydney is widely expected to struggle on-field next season, Hawkins said this would not, in itself, affect the players' enjoyment of their new club. Hawkins was part of just two wins in his season at Fitzroy but relished the experience nonetheless.

"I have no regrets about going to Fitzroy because at the end of the day I love playing footy and Fitzroy gave me a chance," Hawkins said.

"It was a hard battle but it was a great experience for me at 35. Even though I was on my last legs I played 21 games, so I gave pretty good service."
 
The Giants' decision to recruit veterans such as Power, Cornes, Brogan and McDonald who could play mentoring roles was a good strategy, Hawkins and McGuane said.

"GWS is crying out for leadership, they're crying out for experience," McGuane said.

"And the guys that you've mentioned will all be fantastic role models to a young group, who have got to understand quickly the rigours and challenges that AFL footy provides.

"Universally respected people who have just left that environment or who are in their twilight years are the ones you need to provide that sort of mentoring."

But, most of all, Hawkins, Martyn and McGuane said the four veterans owed it to themselves to prolong their playing careers for as long as they could.

"You're a long time retired," Hawkins said. "My advice to these boys would be: 'Go ahead and enjoy it and finish your career off somewhere exciting', which is what this new franchise is.

"I think it will be terrific for them to go to GWS and have a crack at that. Good luck to them."

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs