Sir Donald Bradman scored the first Test century at the Gabba. It was a magnificent 226 in November 1931 and set up a landslide Australian victory over South Africa.
The incomparable Bradman is one of 72 Test cricketers who have scored a combined 117 Gabba Test centuries. It’s the elite of the elite.
But in a football sense, the Gabba Centurions Club is much more exclusive. It has just 19 members.
On Sunday afternoon, when the Brisbane Lions host Fremantle, the Gabba will welcome a 20th football centurion in Dayne Zorko.
The Magicians Gabba run started in Round 7 2012 when he debuted for the Lions against Collingwood. He would have to wait until the following week however to sing the song, after defeating GWS by 92 points.
The Gabba has been the home of football in Queensland for almost 30 years. It has hosted upwards of 1500 players in 364 games, highlighted by the 2020 grand final.
It is a history that began on Sunday afternoon 28 June 1981 when Hawthorn played Essendon for premiership points at the Gabba in front of a sell-out crowd of 20,351, with hundreds sitting on the old greyhound track that surrounded the egg-shaped playing surface.
In 363 Gabba games since that day the aggregate score has been bettered only once – in 2001 when the Lions beat Fremantle 25-21 (171) to 19-8 (122).
Remarkably, Marcus Ashcroft played in 136 of the first 137 Gabba games played by the Bears/Lions, missing only Round 9 2000 with a minor thigh strain.
He was the AFL’s first Gabba centurion in the ‘if it bleeds we can kill it’ game against Essendon in Round 10 2001, when the Lions began a 16-game winning streak that would take them all the way to the flag.
Darryl White, Shaun Hart and Nigel Lappin followed in 2002, Michael Voss and Chris Scott in 2003, Jason Akermanis, Craig McRae and Justin Leppitsch in 2004, and Chris Johnson in 2005.
In 2006 Simon Black became the 11th Gabba 100-gamer on route to a ground record 170 AFL appearances, before he was followed by Luke Power in 2007, Daniel Bradshaw and Tim Notting in 2008 and Jonathan Brown in 2010.
It has been a less common occurrence since then, with only four in the past decade – Ash McGrath (2013), Jed Adcock (2015), Daniel Merrett (2016) and Daniel Rich (2019).
Behind Zorko among the current players are Ryan Lester (72), Darcy Gardiner and Dan McStay (66), Harris Andrews and Mitch Robinson (62) and Eric Hipwood (53).
THE GABBA STATS LEADERS
Most Games
Black (170) leads from Power (149), Voss and Lappin (147), Ashcroft (136), Akermanis (135), Brown (133), White (128), Hart (125), Leppitsch (117), Bradshaw and Rich (115), Scott (114), Johnson and McGrath (111), Notting (107), Adcock and Merrett (106) and McRae (105).
Most Goals
Brown, Lynch and Bradshaw, the key forward premiership trio of 2001-02-03, have kicked 908 Gabba goals between them, with Brown at 323, Lynch at 295 and Bradshaw at 290. The others are Akermanis (184), Voss (140), McRae (128), Power (119), Roger Merrett (118), Zorko (113), Hart (109) and Lappin (100).
Most Possessions
Black (4042) heads 10 players to have topped 2000 possessions at the Gabba from Voss (3269), Lappin (3219), Power (3141), Ashcroft (2604), Akermanis (2576), Rich (2344), Tom Rockliff (2158), Zorko (2070) and Hart (2048).
Most Brownlow Votes
The Brownlow Medal trio of Black (108), Voss (90) and Akermanis (68) head the aggregate Gabba vote tally from Brown (67), Lappin (58) and Power (56).
Most Goals in a Game
The Brownless bag of 11 in just the second Gabba game in 1991 still stands as the ground record. Tony Lockett kicked 10 for StKilda in the very next Gabba game four weeks later, Hawthorn Queenslander Jason Dunstall kicked 10 against the Bears in 1993 and Brown booted a Brisbane club record 10 against Carlton in 2007.
A Scary Precedent
There were plenty of shaking heads among Lions old-timers this week when Sunday’s game against Fremantle was transferred from Perth to Brisbane due Covid restrictions in the WA capital.
It’s not the first time something like this has happened, but much to the relief of the Lions, the outcome is totally different.
In 1988 the Bears’ scheduled round 3 game against West Coast at Carrara was moved to the WACA in Perth when the Carrara carparks was ruled out-of-bounds due to torrential rain in March-April.
But there was no return switch. The Eagles only accepted the switch on the basis it was an extra game – not a swap. They argued it would cost them more than $100,000 to forgo the scheduled Round 16 game and despite vigorous Bears protests the VFL agreed, ordering only that West Coast pay Brisbane 62.5% of the gate after expenses.
