Life’s all about change, and Youi’s the insurer for all the changes – big and small – that happen to you. That’s why the Brisbane Lions and Youi have teamed-up for the ‘Moments of Change’ series, where each week they’ll look back at some of the defining moments that have shaped the club you know today.
The little (c) that sits besides the captain’s name on the teamsheet each week has been a source of much debate and discussion over the history of the Brisbane Football Club.
Thirteen of the club’s 338 players over 36 years have had the official title of captain, or co-captain, and together they are an intriguing part of the timeless debate over the best captaincy model.
Can a first-gamer be captain? Should it be just one captain? Perhaps co-captains? Or how about five captains?
Brisbane have done it all from the moment Mark Mickan, a 26-year-old ruckman from SANFL club West Adelaide, captained the Brisbane Bears in their first game – and his first game.
Each of the 12 who have followed have represented a significant moment of change. Part of the evolution, the inevitable ups and downs of elite football that in mid-2018 saw the job fall to Dayne Zorko.
Soon to become the Lions’ fourth 100-game captain behind Michael Voss (210), Jonathan Brown (128) and Roger Merrett (125), Zorko stands among a group that will forever hold a special place in a captaincy history that began with a quietly-spoken and ever-thoughtful man who led more by his actions than his voice.
Mickan was the West Adelaide captain and had won the club’s best & fairest three times. He was regarded as the best ruckman in the country outside the AFL when signed by the Bears on a South Australian concession ahead of the 1986 AFL Draft.
Mickan had always wanted to test himself at the highest level and fielded an approach from North Melbourne in 1983. But he hurt his knee the following week, missed six weeks and never heard from them again.
He had been targeted by Fitzroy ahead of the inaugural 1986 AFL Draft but chose Brisbane, he said, because of the excitement associated with a fresh start, and the opportunity to play under Peter Knights. And, because of Fitzroy’s continued financial uncertainty.
Mickan, a one-time teacher who holds degrees in teaching and psychology, was a controversial choice when preferred to 1986 Collingwood captain Mark Williams by inaugural Bears coach Peter Knights.
Ironically, Mickan and Williams had been long-time family friends. Shane O’Sullivan, charged with the job of putting together the inaugural Bears playing list, had even asked Williams to call Mickan to convince him to move to Brisbane. When finally they moved to the Gold Coast after starting in Brisbane Mickan even stayed with Williams and his wife at Mermaid Beach.
But after a 1986-87 summer that was as much about building personal relationships as it was preparing for the enormous on-field challenges Knights went with Mickan as captain. He admitted it was “a touch and go decision” but said he and the match committee had gone Mickan with one eye on the future.
While AFL records are a little sketchy, it is believed Mickan was the first and is still the only person in AFL history to captain his club in his AFL debut.
Even Mickan was surprised. “I thought it would go to ‘Choco’ (Williams),” he said at the time, admitting he would have been delighted just to be in the leadership group. “I feel for him. He would have been the choice of most people and it must be hard not to get the job after all the build-p. I respect him enormously. He is a great leader and his game is so inspirational,” he said.
Williams wasn’t exactly overjoyed. “I felt I’d been an AFL captain, I knew the opposition teams and players, and I’d been on a match committee for four years. All those things would say that maybe I was more qualified than he was to have that position at the start. But I didn’t hold any grudges then and I don’t now,” he said later. “Mark did a wonderful job.
Fittingly, in the club’s first game against North Melbourne at the MCG captain Mickan had the first touch, and vice-captain Williams the first kick as the club was born.
The captaincy model thereafter has been hugely varied. Former Essendon strongman Roger Merrett was an automatic choice by Norm Dare to replace Mickan in 1990 and held the job through the Robert Walls era and into the John Northey era.
But after Merrett retired in 1996 Northey shared the captaincy between a 21-year-old Michael Voss, coming off a Brownlow Medal win, and a 27-year-old Alastair Lynch. It was a choice ahead of its time, but entirely sensible, allowing Voss to ease into the job he was always destined to fill and leaning on the unquestioned leadership of prize recruit Lynch within the playing group.
It that was a surprise then Leigh Matthews’ decision after Voss’ retirement at the end of 2006 was a shock. The original football traditionalist, a product of a Hawthorn environment that has never had even two captains, Matthews went with five.
Brown, Simon Black, Chris Johnson, Nigel Lappin and Luke Power, pivotal figures in the golden era under Voss, shared the job in 2007 in what was a first for the AFL.
While it was widely tipped that Brown and Black would share the job, Matthews explained at the time that the idea of having five players share the captaincy "popped into his head" while walking home one day late in January 2007.
"The way sports teams are led is a changing environment in the modern era," Matthews said at the time. "This particular leadership group has been in place since November, and when that happened I didn't necessarily think it would end up like that four months later, but it has. You watch and learn and you see what's been created and we thought, `Why not?'. Why appoint one person captain if you want a lot of people to be thinking and having the mindset of being a leader?”
Johnson stepped away from the group for personal reasons in Matthews’ final year at the helm in 2008, before Voss, new to the coaching job in 2009, reverted to the ‘norm’ when he appointed Brown to do the job solo.
A natural leader, Brown was captain until he and Voss hatched a succession plan whereby the 31-year-old warhorse would share the job with a 27-year-old Jed Adcock in 2013 before Adcock took the reins solo under new coach Justin Leppitsch in 2014.
After 12 months in charge Leppitsch elevated Tom Rockliff to the top job in 2017, but after a turbulent 24 months and heavy debate about his playing future with the club Rockliff was replaced by Dayne Beams as Chris Fagan took over as coach.
It was a new time in football, with players given a much bigger voice in captaincy appointments. Fagan announced quite openly that Beams had beaten Rockliff and Zorko in a close player vote in which Rockliff had polled much better than he may have if the vote had been conducted four months earlier. He’d worked hard over the summer to rebuild his standing in the group, but 12 months later he exited the Gabba as a free agent.
Beams led the Lions through 2017 and the nine 10 games of 2018 before standing down for personal reasons following the death of his father. Zorko, vice-captain at the time, became the 14th player appointed in his own right to the Brisbane captaincy.
It was another remarkable chapter in the career of the one-time Broadbeach bricklayer, who was overlooked by every AFL club in four consecutive drafts and eventually signed by the Gold Coast Suns on an expansion concession only to be traded immediately to Brisbane after the Suns had expressed concerns over Zorko’s long-term fitness.
The Lions secured Zorko in exchange for selection #34 in the 2011 National Draft, which was subsequently on-traded to Geelong and used by the Cats to pick up Shane Kirsten, who played 37 games for the Cats and 29 games for Fremantle.
Eleven years on history says it is one of the great trades. Among 157 first-time draftees in 2011, which was set-up draft for the GWS Giants, only one has played more than Zorko’s 222 games. Brandon Ellis, dual Richmond premiership player now at Gold Coast, has played 227.
Only four players drafted in 2011 have had more possessions than Zorko’s 4724. Lachie Neale, originally pick #48 to Fremantle, heads the list with 5723 from original GWS draftee turned Western Bulldogs’ midfielder Adam Treloar (5656), pick #15 Ellis (4847) and ex-Adelaide rookie Rory Laird (4767).
Only five players from the Class of 2011 Draft have kicked more than Zorko’s 215 goals. Jeremy Cameron, a GWS foundation signing now at Geelong has kicked most at 512 – more than double the 274 goals of Chad Wingard, who was pick #6 to Port Adelaide and is now at Hawthorn, foundation GWS signing Toby Greene (253) and Josh Bruce, another GWS foundation signing now at the Bulldogs. He has kicked 233.
Only Neale (128), Sydney father/son pick turned Hawthorn Brownlow Medallist Tom Mitchell (114) and Treloar (81) have polled more Brownlow Medal votes than Zorko’s 80, while Zorko’s five Merrett/Murray Medals and two second placings is a clear highwater mark for the 2011 Draft.
It is a phenomenal record for a player who debuted for the Lions as the as the medical substitute for the Round 7 2012 clash with Collingwood at the Gabba after a delayed start to his first season.
It was the 69th game for Daniel Rich, his only teammate from game one who is still at the club. He replaced the injured Pearce Hanley, played 56 minutes and had two kicks, six handballs and two tackles in a 58-point loss.
After 131 games under Brown, Adcock, Rockliff and Beams, including what club records suggest was five games as fill-in captain in 2015-16, Zorko had a 38-93 win/loss record. Since taking over the captaincy his record is 58-33.
While it’s more a reflection the club’s overall position there can be no disputing the fact that the now 33-year-old has done a wonderful job.
Exactly how many games Zorko has been captain is a matter of debate. AFL records suggest it is 96 but club records say 97 – one as fill-in captain in 2015, when Zorko, Rich and Hanley were vice-captains under Rockliff, four as fill-in captain in 2016, when Beams, Zorko, Rich, Hanley and Daniel Merrett made up the leadership group under Rockliff, and 92 games outright since replacing Beams.
Regardless, now in his 11th year, Zorko sits beautifully alongside the club’s very best.
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