From the QAFL Site
Broadbeach co-captain Dayne Zorko will post his 50th QAFL State League game this weekend.
The pocket-sized goal-kicking rover will chalk up his half-century as the Cats host Mt.Gravatt in a crunch game for both sides at Merrimac Oval on Sunday.
Club insiders suggest it will be the first of many milestone games for the 21-year-old, who rejected offers from interstate to stay with Broadbeach after he narrowly missed the 2007 and ’08 AFL draft.
It has been a bitter-sweet pill for the ever-competitive 175cm midfielder, who was the Queensland U18 captain and best player in 2007 but missed out on a chance at AFL level largely because of his lack of size.
He has put that disappointment behind him to build what already shapes as one of the great careers at Merrimac.
Known around the cliub as ‘Tinka’, Zorko was runner-up to Mt.Gravatt’s Melbourne draftee Rohan Bail in the 2008 QAFL Rising Star Award and has won the Broadbeach B&F in 2008-09 (with 33 and 32 votes respectively - Broadbeach website Ed).
In a stellar 2008 season he also represented Queensland against WA in Townsville, finished 4th in the Grogan Medal and kicked 50 goals to win a spot in the Team of the Year.
He was also appointed captain of the club at 19 by then Broadbeach coach Shaun Hart.
In 2009, when Adrian Smith, he appointed Wade Dickson as captain and opted for Zorko as a vice-captain for one simple reason – he didn’t want to over-burden his young star.
“I could see him going beyond Queensland footy and I wanted him just to concentrate on his own game. I didn’t want him weighed down by the captaincy,” Smith explained.
“As it turned out it didn’t make much difference – Wade went down in Round 1 and ‘Tinka’ and Jesse Derrick filled in as captains for the rest of the year. He just didn’t have the title and the extra responsibility that went with it.”
Also in 2009 Zorko skippered the Queensland U21 side to an outstanding win over the VAFA U21s before taking on the Broadbeach captaincy in his own right in 2010, sharing the role with Matt Fife.
The timing was right, according to Smith. “He’s worked on the areas of his game he knew he needed to work on – like his self-control. I reckon the umpires know Tinka but these days he leads by example and is a terrific leader of what is a pretty young group,” the coach said.
Smith insists that if he was 5cm taller Zorko would be playing AFL football. He says he still should be and could be.
“I’ve seen a lot of players at that elite who can’t do the things that Dayne can do. He’s breaks the lines, he’s got explosive speed and he uses the ball very well,” he said.
Always attracting a strong tag because of his huge importance to his side, Smith says Zorko is handling the close attention better these days – and is getting a lot more support from his teammates.
It’s all been part of a strong start to the 2010 season in which Zorko earned Team of the Week selection in Round 1 and Round 3 and a club-high seven votes in the Syd Guildford Trophy.
He was best afield in the Cats’ outstanding Round 3 win over the Lions Reserves at Merrimac, and has kicked four goals in as many games, missing Round 2 through suspension.
Last Modified on 12/12/2010 22:11