Dayne Zorko (born 9 February 1989) is a professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er playing for the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions are a professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that compete in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. Brisbane are the ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). Zorko won a premiership with the Brisbane Lions in 2024, and is a dual

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

(becoming the oldest player to receive the honour with his 2024 selection), five-time

Merrett–Murray Medal The Merrett–Murray Medal has been awarded annually since 1997, to the player adjudged the Brisbane Lions club champion over the immediately preceding Australian Football League (AFL) season. It is named after Roger Merrett and Kevin Murray (Aus ...

list and dual Brisbane Lions leading goalkicker. He served as Brisbane Lions captain from 2018 to 2022.

Early life

Zorko was born and raised on the Gold Coast, the second youngest of four children. His

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

n father, a refugee from

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

who moved with his parents at about six years of age to Melbourne, had developed a passion for the sport before settling on the Gold Coast and having children.Zorko Marks 250 On Biggest Stage
By Peter Blucher for Lions Media 28 September 2023 His father began coaching the Surfers Paradise Demons and when his five year older brother Beau began playing in the under 8s, Dayne was just 3 years of age. Dayne became a club mascot and began training after complaining that he didn't want to be left at home. He participated in Auskick at Surfers Paradise at the age of four. Dayne attended

Benowa State High School Benowa State High School (BSHS) is a state, co-educational school in the suburb of Benowa (Queensland, Australia) in the Gold Coast. The school is located in the land of the Kombumerri people, within the wider Bujalung language nation, reco ...

throughout his teenage years. He went on to play more than 250 junior and senior games for

Surfers Paradise Surfing is a list of surface water sports, surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in Glossary of surfing, tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wind wave, wave of water, whic ...

, which included an under-16 premiership where he played alongside future

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

players

Ricky Petterd Ricky Petterd (born 24 July 1988) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Petterd was drafted to with the 30th overall ...

Brent Renouf Brent Renouf (born 3 May 1988 in New Zealand) is a former Australian rules football player who played with the Hawthorn Football Club and Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League. Early life Renouf was born in New Zealand ...

and Jesse White. In 2006 and 2007, he gained the desire to play at elite level and in 2007 switched to Broadbeach for his final year of junior football in pursuit of top level

QAFL The Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL or "Q-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football competition organised by the AFL Queensland, contested by clubs from South East Queensland. Founded in 1903 it was previously known as the Queensl ...

exposure to increase his

AFL draft The Australian Football League draft is the annual draft (sports), draft of unsigned players, especially new nominations, by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League ( ...

chances. Zorko captained Queensland during the

2007 AFL Under 18 Championships The 2007 NAB AFL Under 18 Championships was the 12th edition of the AFL Under 18 Championships. Eight teams competed in the championships: Vic Metro, Vic Country, South Australia and Western Australia in Division 1, and New South Wales/Australi ...

and was named Queensland's Most Valuable Player during the national carnival, but was overlooked in the

2007 AFL draft The 2007 Australian Football League draft consisted of four opportunities for player acquisitions during the 2007/08 Australian Football League off-season. These were AFL trade week, trade week, the national draft, which was held on 24 November ...

. He remained at Broadbeach for the 2008 season and picked up his first senior best-and-fairest award but was again overlooked in the 2008 AFL draft. In March 2009 the newly formed

GC17 The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in the ...

consortium invited a then 20-year-old Zorko to train with their under-18

TAC Cup The Talent League (also known as the Coates Talent League under naming rights and previously as the NAB League and TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition based in Melbourne and run by the Australian Foot ...

team, which Zorko hoped would lead to a VFL contract with the club for the following season but Gold Coast's interest waned after two weeks. By the end of the 2010 season, Zorko had amassed three consecutive senior best-and-fairest awards at Broadbeach but still failed to capture the interest of any AFL clubs. He found himself at a crossroad when being offered contracts to play in higher standard state leagues outside of Queensland but eventually decided to stay at Broadbeach for the 2011 NEAFL season. Broadbeach coach Matt Angus knew Zorko had the skills to make it in the AFL but described his professionalism as "nowhere near that" required of an AFL player. At the conclusion of the 2011 season, after winning the NEAFL's Syd Guildford Trophy as the Football Record Player of the Year, along with a fourth consecutive club best-and-fairest with Broadbeach, he was put back on AFL recruiters' radars. Zorko later revealed his reason for staying in Queensland was the hope that the recently established

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast in the ...

AFL team would draft him with their local access zone concessions. After being overlooked several times Zorko believed AFL clubs thought he was too short and slow to play in the AFL.

AFL career

Zorko was recruited by in the 2011 AFL draft as a Queensland zone selection, before being on-traded to the . Zorko made his AFL debut against at the Gabba in round 7, 2012, and quickly made a name for himself as a small

half-forward flank In the sport of Australian rules football, the half-forward line refers to a position on the field of play. 3 players are positioned in the half-forward line, a left and right half-forward flank player, as well as a centre half-forward. A hal ...

who could kick freakish goals, leading to the nickname "The Magician". He quickly became a cult figure at the Lions despite the team's woes, with

Michael Voss Michael Voss (born 7 July 1975) is a former professional Australian rules football player with the Brisbane Bears and Brisbane Lions, and current senior coach of the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Voss was a tr ...

being sacked as coach before the end of the 2013 season and the Lions hovering around the lower reaches of the ladder for several seasons. After a consistent first few seasons, Zorko was named as the joint winner of the

in 2015 as Brisbane's best-and-fairest, alongside

Dayne Beams Dayne Beams (born 12 February 1990) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He also previously played for, and captained, the Brisbane Lions duri ...

Stefan Martin Stefan Martin (born 17 November 1986) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Western Bulldogs, Brisbane Lions, and Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Martin grew up in Berwick, the s ...

and

Mitch Robinson Mitchell Robinson (born 7 June 1989) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for and in the Australian Football League (AFL). Robinson was named the Brisbane Lions club champion in 2015. In addition to his AFL career, ...

. He went on to also win the award in 2016 and 2017, as well as lead the Lions' goalkicking during those seasons, and was also selected in the

2017 All-Australian team The 2017 Virgin Australia All-Australian team represents the best performed Australian Football League (AFL) players during the 2017 season. It was announced on 30 August as a complete Australian rules football team of 22 players. The team is h ...

as a

half-forward In the sport of Australian rules football, the half-forward line refers to a position on the field of play. 3 players are positioned in the half-forward line, a left and right half-forward flank player, as well as a centre half-forward. A hal ...

. Zorko replaced Beams as the Lions' captain during the 2018 season after Beams stepped down from the captaincy for personal reasons, with

Harris Andrews Harris Michael Johnston Andrews (born 11 December 1996) is an Australian rules footballer and the co-captain of the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Andrews was born in Fitzroy in Melbourne in 1996. He moved t ...

taking over as vice-captain from Zorko. His first match as captain was in round 10 against at the Gabba. After Brisbane lost to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in round 23 of the 2022 season, Zorko apologised for an inappropriate comment he made during the game to Melbourne player Harrison Petty, saying in a statement 'I understand I need to be a better leader, and have spoken with the Club who have reinforced this." Zorko stood down as captain of the Brisbane Lions ahead of the 2023 season. He won the

Marcus Ashcroft Medal The Marcus Ashcroft Medal is awarded to the player judged best on ground in the QClash Australian rules football, football match played between Brisbane Lions, Brisbane and Gold Coast Football Club, Gold Coast. It is named after former football ...

, awarded to the best on ground in the

QClash The QClash is the name given to the Australian rules football rivalry match between the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns, who both participate in the Australian Football League (AFL). The first men's QClash was held in 2011 AFL season, 2011, ...

, for the first time during round 8 of the 2024 season. His performance included a career-high Fantasy score with 40 disposals and 35 kicks. Zorko was part of the Brisbane Lions 2024 premiership winning team. Despite no longer being the captain of the club, coach Chris Fagan called Zorko up to the premiership dais to raise the premiership cup with the incumbent co-captains,

and

Lachie Neale Lachlan Oliver Neale (born 24 May 1993) is an Australian rules footballer and the co-captain of the Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played for the Fremantle Football Club from 2012 to 2018 before being tra ...

Statistics

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2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

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2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

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2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

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2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

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Honours and achievements

Team * AFL premiership player ():

NAB Cup Nab or NAB may refer to: * The Nab, a fell in the English Lake District * Nab Tower, a lighthouse in England *Mazraat Nab, now the Israeli settlement and religious moshav Nov, Golan Heights * N.A.B. SC, a soccer club in Adelaide, Australia Abbrevi ...

: (

)

Individual * Brisbane Lions captain: 2018–2022 * 2×

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perfo ...

* 5×

: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021 * 2× Brisbane Lions leading goalkicker: 2016, 2017 * Australian representative honours in

international rules football International rules football (; also known as international rules in Australia and compromise rules or Aussie rules in Ireland) is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international represe ...

* 2×

: 2024 (both games)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zorko, Dayne 1989 births Living people Brisbane Lions players VFL/AFL premiership players Brisbane Lions premiership players Brisbane Lions captains Broadbeach Australian Football Club players Australian rules footballers from the Gold Coast, Queensland Merrett–Murray Medal winners Australian people of Slovenian descent All-Australians (AFL) Australia international rules football team players 21st-century Australian sportsmen