Dayne Zorko's journey to the AFL was not like many others.

Osteitis pubis is the modern term for what footballers used to call the old-fashioned groin injury, and as a teenager, Dayne was told by the Gold Coast Suns that his body couldn’t handle the rigors of AFL football, and that he wouldn’t get through a pre-season.

Privately the Suns also had concerns about the professionalism of the one-time bricklayer, who had captained the Queensland Under 18 side in 2007 but was overlooked in the draft four years in a row from 2007-10.

There were concerns, too, that at 175cm Zorko was too small. That despite being just 2cm shorter and 2kg heavier than North Melbourne’s 432-game AFL record-holder Brent Harvey.

So, with priority access to the then 22-year-old as part of the club’s AFL entry conditions, the Suns agreed to trade him. And an hour or so up the highway at the Gabba they found a willing buyer.

In a three-way trade between the two Queensland clubs and Melbourne, the Lions gave up selections #34 and #52 in the 2011 National Draft for Zorko and pick #47. The Suns picked up 55-game Melbourne defender Matthew Warnock and Melbourne walked away with pick #52.

Ten years on the outcomes provide not just confirmation of what a blockbuster deal it was for the Lions but a retrospective insight into the complexities of AFL list management, which make good media fodder, but are never as simple as they look in hindsight.

Statistically, Zorko, or ‘Tinker’ as he was called when he first arrived at the Gabba, has been a marvel. He’s the first player from the 2011 draft to reach 200 games, and from his original draft year of 2007, when he was overlooked for the first time, there are just 14 still playing. And only eight 200-gamers.

The turning point in Zorko’s career which sparked the Lions interest in the ever-combative Broadbeach skipper came on 18 June 2011 when, after dominating the Queensland League for four years, he played for Queensland against Western Australia at Mandurah, an hour south of Perth.

Rob Kerr, Lions list manager at the time, had traveled to Perth specifically to watch Lions rookies Niall McKeever and Joel Tippett play against a star-studded WA side.

But after a heart-stopped six-point Queensland loss Kerr returned home most impressed by Zorko’s 30 possessions, eight tackles, and four goals (three in the last quarter) to win the Zane Taylor Medal as his team’s best player.

Suddenly, the Benowa High School graduate and one-time bricklayer, whose father had moved from Yugoslavia to Melbourne before settling on the Gold Coast, was a wanted man. And when the complicated trade was finalised in the last hours of the trade period he was an AFL player.

If there was a moment that sparked Zorko’s brilliant 2011 campaign it may have been some tough love from Broadbeach coach Matt Angus after Zorko had rejected a string of interstate offers.

Angus, a standout junior footballer and tennis player from Perth who took over as Broadbeach coach in 2011, told Zorko he had the skills to play in the AFL, but described his professionalism as “nowhere near that”.

For a decade since then he has proved it is never too late to change, claiming a position among the Lions’ all-time greats in a career full of statistical and personal highlights.

HIS FIRST GAME

After shaking off his OP, he debuted at the Gabba in Round 7 2012. At 23 years 93 days he was old by first-game standards. His first game was a 58-point loss to Collingwood. The visitors’ Steele Sidebottom, Dane Swan and Scott Pendlebury each had 30-plus possessions to collect the Brownlow Medal votes. Zorko had eight possessions and two tackles and spent more time on the interchange bench than he did on the field.

FIRST BROWNLOW VOTE

Zorko started loss-win-loss-win-loss but in a 65-point fifth-game loss to Hawthorn at the MCG he had 24 possessions, a team-high seven tackles and kicked three goals to earn his first two Brownlow Medal votes. His first best afield rating came in his 15^th game – an 11-point win over Port Adelaide in Adelaide where he had 23 possessions, six tackles and three goals. He had polled 36 times to the end of 2020, with 10 three-vote ratings. His 66 career votes is seventh on the all-time Brisbane list behind Simon Black (184), Michael Voss (150), Jonathan Brown (112), Nigel Lappin (93), Jason Akermanis (91), Luke Power (83) and Tom Rockliff (68).

200-GAME CLUB

In the clubs combined history there have been 31 200-gamers – 11 at Fitzroy in 100 years, 19 at Brisbane in 34 years, plus Alastair Lynch, who played 120 games at Fitzroy and 186 with Brisbane. Zorko will be the 32^nd to join the following:

Fitzroy: 333 Kevin Murray, 269 Paul Roos, 268 Garry Wilson, 249 Frank Curcio, 228 Norm Johnstone, 222 Alan Ruthven, 218 David McMahon, 214 John Murphy, 213 Alan Gale, 213 Warwick Irwin, 210 Mick Conlan.

Brisbane: 322 Simon Black, 318 Marcus Ashcroft, 289 Michael Voss, 282 Luke Power, 279 Nigel Lappin, 273 Shaun Hart, 268 Darryl White, 257 Jonathan Brown, 248 Jason Akermanis, 227 Justin Leppitsch, 222 Daniel Bradshaw, 214 Chris Scott and Ash McGrath, 208 Tim Notting, 206 Jed Adcock, 205 Chris Johnson (plus 59 at Fitzroy), 200 Daniel Merrett.

Among the 20 Brisbane 200-gamers, Zorko will be the oldest at 32 years 151 days, ahead of Merrett (31/260) and Johnson (30/347). With 4225 possessions and 203 goals from 199 games he’ll rank behind only Black (4575) and possibly Voss (4243) in possessions and Brown and Bradshaw (436) and Akermanis (242) in goals. His 24 games of 30+ possessions is second only to Black’s 32, and his aggregate Brownlow Medal vote tally to the end of 2020 of 66 has him behind only Voss and Black (111), Brown (103) and Akermanis (67) at the time of their 200^th game, with 2021 votes to be added.

CLUB CHAMPION

Zorko has won the Merrett/Murray Medal in 2015-16-17-18. During the period of his career (2012-20) he is one of only four-time winners across the AFL. Scott Pendlebury has done likewise at Collingwood, while Lachie Neale is a two-winner at Brisbane after two wins at Fremantle and Patrick Dangerfield has added three wins at Geelong to one at Adelaide. Only five-time winner Michael Voss has won more club championships at Brisbane. At Fitzroy, Kevin Murray was a nine-time winner and four players won the Merrett/Murray Medal equivalent five times – Allan Ruthven, Garry Wilson, John Murphy and Paul Roos.

IRON MAN  

He began his AFL career with 59 games in a row and has missed just seven games on his way to 200 – all singles. He’s missed three due to suspension, two for personal reasons and one each last year for minor achilles and calf problems.

PERSONAL BEST

Zorko’s biggest AFL win has been by 92 points and came in just his second game against GWS at the Gabba in 2012. He has twice had 38 possessions in a game and four times kicked four goals.

FROM HIS ORIGINAL DRAFT YEAR

Patrick Dangerfield heads the games list from the AFL Class of 2007 – all players drafted in the year in which Zorko could originally have joined League. Despite spotting this group a four-year start only Dangerfield and seven others have reached 200 – Trent Cotchin (262), Chris Mayne (242), Callan Ward (239), Ben McEvoy (237), Taylor Walker (217), Cale Hooker (216) and Shane Mumford (210). Lachie Henderson, Brisbane’s first pick in 2007 at #8 and now at Geelong, has played 199 games, and Zorko’s ex-Brisbane teammate Stefan Martin, originally a Pre-Season draft selection in the same year, has played 197 games.

GAMES AS CAPTAIN

Zorko has skippered the Lions 72 times to rank fifth on a Brisbane list headed by Michael Voss (210), Jonathan Brown (133), Roger Merrett (125) and Alastair Lynch (74). Five ex-Fitzroy captains are also ahead of him – Kevin Murray (159), Paul Roos (122), Allan Ruthven (110), Fred Hughson (103) and John Murphy (94).

NOT SO TALL

Officially listed at 175cm by the AFL, Zorko is shorter than all but 10 Brisbane players all-time. Those below him are Danny Craven (162cm), Corey Bell (170cm), Chris O’Sullivan (172cm), Gary Shaw (173cm), Troy Clarke (173cm), Brad Rowe (174cm), Steve McLuckie (174cm), Lachie Sim (174cm) and Peter Worsfold (174cm).

Fitzroy records list 189 players shorter than Zorko. The shortest all-time at 157cm have been Doug Nicholls, a 54-gamer from 1932-37 after whom the AFL’s Indigenous Round is now named, and Barclay Bailey, who played 79 games from 1905-09 and was a 1905 premiership player.

JUMPER #15

Zorko will be the ninth player on a list of AFL 200 gamers in jumper #15 that is headed by Luke Hodge at 305. Having inherited the Brisbane #15 from ex-StKilda player Xavier Clarke, who wore it just once in an injury-plagued stint at the Gabba and will be the first Brisbane/Fitzroy 200-gamer in #15. Equal second on the club list for games in #15 are Mal Michael, who wore #15 140 times through the 2001-02-03 premiership era, and Eddie Goodyer, a 149-game Fitzroy defender from 1949-58.