Saturday 12 May 2012, at the Gabba, on a mild and fine spring Saturday evening, Dayne Zorko, an unheralded 23-year-old, overlooked four years in a row in the AFL draft and effectively given away for nothing by the Gold Coast Suns, made his AFL debut.

It seems like a life time ago. And for the now 36-year-old it is. Because on Saturday he will qualify for AFL life membership.

His 284^th AFL game, added to 14 pre-season games and two International Rules matches, will give him 300 ‘official’ games and a place among the elite of the elite.

Almost 13 and a half years later Zorko has missed just 13 games – three through three separate one-match suspensions, one for personal reasons after the passing of his father, and eight through six different medical situations. There was a three-match calf problem once and six times he has missed one week – once when listed as ‘sore’, three times with a hamstring, once with an Achilles, and one other time with a calf. So nothing above the waist!!

It all goes back to the most unlikely of beginnings after Zorko, the 2008 Queensland Under 18 captain, had been overlooked in the draft of 2008-09-10-11 despite dominating at QAFL level and winning the Broadbeach best & fairest four years in a row.

He was zoned to the Gold Coast Suns, who had joined the competition in 2011, but was unwanted by the club based a couple of kicks from where he lived. On medical advice they were told his body would not stand up to the rigors of AFL football.

So, in a three-way trade, the Suns effectively traded Zorko and pick #47 in the 2011 draft to Brisbane for pick #32 and Melbourne defender Matthew Warnock. They on-traded #32 with #34 to Geelong for pick #26, which they traded to Richmond for an end-of-first-round compensational pick at #24.

Warnock, who’d played 55 games at Melbourne from 2005-11, added 32 games for the Suns in three years before he retired. And Henry Schade, drafted with pick at #24, was delisted by the club after 20 games in five years and before eight games with Collingwood in 2017.

And Zorko has become one of Queensland football’s greats.

Described in first entry in the AFL Guide in 2013 as “a clever midfielder, small in stature but with great skills and a big engine” and “a long kick and a terrier with defensive pressure”, he inherited the #15 jumper worn by ex-St Kilda utility Xavier Clarke in his only Brisbane game in 2010.

He missed the first three games of his first season with the remnants of the groin problem which had scared off the Suns, and played three games in the Reserves before finally getting his chance in Round 7.

The Lions, under fourth-year coach Michael Voss, had lost to Essendon by 67 points at Marvel Stadium in Round 6 and made five changes at selection.

They dropped Aaron Cornelius and Jack Crisp and lost Jed Adcock to a groin strain as Ben Hudson and Ryan Lester were officially listed as ‘sore’. Andrew Raines returned from suspension, Josh Drummond returned from injury, and James Hawksley and Niall McKeever were promoted from the Reserves with the ‘new boy’ in jumper #15.

In Zorko’s first game Brisbane, 14^th on the ladder at 2-4 and playing under Voss for the 75^th time, hosted a Collingwood side that was 8^th at 4-2 heading into their 7^th game under Buckley.

Brisbane player #257, one after Jack Crisp (now at Collingwood) and one before Elliot Yeo (now at West Coast), Zorko wore the green vest as the starting ‘sub’.

The Lions were beaten 8-10 (58) to 16-14 (116) as Steele Sidebottom and Scott Pendlebury, who are still playing, combined with Dane Swan for 102 possessions and four goals to sweep the Brownlow Medal votes. Dayne Beams, later to play with Zorko at Brisbane, had 30 possessions.

Zorko played 43% game time after replacing Pearce Hanley at halftime and had two kicks and six handballs as Jack Redden topped the Brisbane possession count with 28 and Jonathan Brown, in his fourth and final year as solo captain, kicked two goals with Patrick Karnezis. Simon Black, in his 302^nd game, had 20 possessions and a goal.