Former Sydney AFL coach Paul Roos has backed Matthew Knights for criticising Matthew Lloyd for airing private team information in a new book.

Essendon's all-time leading goalkicker Lloyd released an autobiography called Straight Shooter last week which was highly critical of the former Bombers coach Knights.

Knights hit back on Sunday, saying any suggestion he had forced Lloyd to retire before the 2010 season were utter crap.

Knights was sacked at the end of last year.

He had wanted Lloyd to move away from full-forward in the 2010 season and play further up the ground.

Lloyd feared he would be dropped if his form slumped and said he didn't want to end his career playing in the reserves.

Lloyd didn't have a strong team ethic and wanted to be the one kicking goals, Knights said, contrasting his attitude with that of veteran defender Dustin Fletcher who's still playing good football at 36.

"In the end, I don't think he really had the courage to back himself in and I think he might have done himself out of another two of three years of football," Knights said.

Knights was disappointed comments about the work ethic of Kyle Reimers and Jay Neagle were included in the book.

Roos agreed, telling FoxSports' On The Couch program that a club can't run effectively without some privacy.

"No question. There are things you discuss with players and things you discuss with coaches and, if you knew that all of it would end up in a book, you'd have to conduct yourself differently," Roos said on Monday night.

"And that would be to the detriment of the football club.

"You can write an interesting book but there are certainly some things that you can't (mention).

"You can't talk to people about really inner-sanctum, private conversations.

"On that point, I - 100 per cent - agree with Matty Knights. There are things within a footy club that have to stay within the football club."

Robert Walls, the former Fitzroy, Carlton, Brisbane and Richmond coach, told OneHD's One Week At A Time program he didn't regard it as such a big deal.

"Once you're away from the club, if you want to do it, you can do it," Walls said of Lloyd's airing of Essendon's internal team discussions.

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