AFL Grand Final day is always a wild collection of facts, figures and fairytale football journeys. No more so than Dayne Zorko at one end of the scale this year and Jaspa Fletcher at the other end.

Zorko, set to play his 250^th game in the grand final, will rank 10^th in AFL history all-time for the longest wait to play on the big day.

His wait will be 18 games shorter than Marcus Ashcroft’s 268 games in 2001 and one game longer than Alastair Lynch’s 249 games the same year. And 64 games longer than the AFL’s all-time leader.

Fitzroy favourite Paul Roos waited 314 games to play in the 1996 grand final with Sydney to head a list which includes Shane Crawford (305), Paul Williams (294), Matthew Pavlich (291), Matthew Boyd (282), Eddie Betts (277), Patrick Dangerfield (269), Ashcroft (268), Greg Wells (256), Zorko (250), Lynch (249), Stan Alves (241), Stewart Loewe (237) and Lions assistant-coach Dale Morris (230).

Fletcher, playing QAFL football with Sherwood this time last year, will play in the grand final in his 14^th game. It will be the second-quickest trip to the ‘big dance’ in club history, behind the unforgettable thrill of Richard Hadley, who played in the 2003 grand final in just his fourth game.

But there are two other Lions who were almost as quick to the grand final as Fletcher.

Josh Dunkley played in the 2016 premiership with the Western Bulldogs in his 17^th game. He was the 19-year-old ‘baby’ of a Dogs side that beat Sydney coming from 7^th on the home-and-away ladder.

Lachie Neale played in the 2013 grand final with Fremantle in his 23^rd game. He, too, was the ‘baby’ at 20 when the starting substitute in a Dockers side beaten by Hawthorn.

The two other current Lions players with grand final experience are Jack Gunston, who hasn’t played since Round 22 due to injury, and Charlie Cameron.

Gunston was just 20 and in his 33^rd game when he played in the first of four grand finals with Hawthorn in 2012, while Cameron was 23 and in his 73^rd game with Adelaide in 2017.

Brisbane will field two teenagers in the grand final on Saturday for the first time – 19-year-olds Fletcher and Darcy Wilmot, who has his own extraordinary story. He made his AFL debut on 1 September last year in the elimination final and will play his 29^th consecutive game in the grand final.

The club’s only other grand final teenager was a 19-year-old Jonathan Brown in 2001. For the record books, Fletcher will be the youngest at 19 years 218 days from Wilmot (19/273) and Brown (19/335).

Fletcher will join 2001 premiership player Robert Copeland as just the second Brisbane player to play in a grand final in his first season. It was his 17^th game. Likewise, Dunkley was a first-year player with the Bulldogs in 2016.

Wilmot will replicate Brown in playing in the grand final in his second season. As Neale did with the Dockers in 2013.

At the other end of the scale, Ryan Lester, set to play his first grand final in his 180^th game, will claim his own place in history in a different measure. He is in his 13^th season. Lynch waited until his 14^th season to play in a grand final and Marcus Ashcroft his 13^th.

Zorko, Jarryd Lyons and Linc McCarthy are in their 12^th season in the AFL going into their first grand final, while Joe Daniher, like Darryl White in 2001, is in his 11^th season. Darcy Gardiner is in his 10^th season, like Michael Voss in 2001.

Only three and possibly four Lions will have played fewer than 100 games prior to the grand final - Devon Robertson (41), Keidean Coleman (64) and Brandon Starcevich (97). Jack Payne would be 51 games if fit.

Behind Zorko at 250 will be Lyons (191), Harris Andrews (186), Lester (180) and Daniher (177).

Daniher will be the fifth member of his famous family to feature in a grand final. His father Anthony played in the 1990 grand final with Essendon, while uncles Terry (1983-84-85-90) and Chris (1993) also played on the big day. And uncle Neale coached Melbourne in the 2000 grand final.

A 34-year-old Zorko will be the second-oldest Lions grand final player behind Lynch, who was 35 in 2003 and 36 in 2004.

Like Hadley in 2003, Fletcher will play in the grand final in just his second game at the MCG. Wilmot has played four games at the MCG, Payne five, Coleman, Callum Ah Chee and Robertson six.

Subject to final selection, the 2023 Lions grand final side will have an average of 26.7 years and an average experience of 136 games. The 2001 grand final side was slightly younger and less experienced at 25.4 years and 125 games.

The 2001 side had 10 players with fewer than 100 games and four players with 200 games experience or more. The 2023 side will have three or four players with fewer than 100 games and Zorko, Neale, Cameron and possibly Gunston.

Among other players who could be named in the 26-man Lions squad for the grand final, 22-year-old Jaxon Prior has played 35 games but only once at the MCG, 30-year-old Darcy Fort has played 33 games and three times at the MCG. Harry Sharp and Kai Lohmann are both 20, have played 10 games and eight games respectively, and have never played at the MCG, and Jimmy Tunstill is 20, has played five games and one at the MCG.