It was a mixed weekend for Queensland’s AFL teams .. a Lions win and a SUNS loss .. but it was a record-breaking weekend for Queensland Australian rules football overall.
Ten Queenslanders in the SUNS side that lost to Sydney at Norwood Oval equalled the record set a week earlier. And nine Queenslanders in the Lions side that beat North Melbourne at the Barossa equalled the record of last year, which included the Grand Final.
And 19 Queenslanders in the two Queensland clubs in the same round is an all-time record and confirmation of the growth of the game in the Sunshine State.
But there was big down side for Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko and what will be his final position on the all-time games list by a Queenslander, and the all-time Brisbane games list … a calf injury which will sideline him officially for “two to three weeks”.
Injured in his 309th game on Saturday, he is chasing Nick Riewoldt’s Queensland record of 336 games, Jason Akermanis’ 325 games and Marcus Ashcroft’s 318 games, and Simon Black’s Lions record of 322 games.
He needs nine games to go past Ashcroft. With 18 home-and-away games left, that shouldn’t be a problem. And the Riewoldt mark is a question for next year.
If he misses, say, four games with his calf he could potentially play his 323rd game in the last game of the home-and-away season to better the Black record. And then he would need three finals to go past Akermanis.
Zorko already heads the all-time Queensland AFL possession list with 6,810 from Michael Voss (6143), Akermanis (5,868), Ashcroft (5,848), Riewoldt (5,613), Jarrod Harbrow (4,970) and Dayne Beams (4,529), and is third on the Queensland finals list with 20, behind only Akermanis (28) and Jason Dunstall and David Hale (21), and ahead of Ashcroft and Voss (19) and Riewoldt (17).
Zorko spent the last three quarters of the Lions’ 26-point win over North on the bench as co-captain Harris Andrews returned from suspension.
Andrews had 15 possessions, including a team-high 10 intercept possessions, but it was his mere presence and leadership that was equally important.
Will Ashcroft topped the possession count among the Queenslanders in the Brisbane side with 19.
But he still had five tackles, second only to Jarrod Berry’s six in the Lions side, and five clearances, second only to the 10 of best afield Lachie Neale.
Ty Gallop, too, continued his transformation from key forward to key back with another strong performance notable for his defensive pressure at times.
Bodhi Uwland (26 possessions) was best in the SUNS side against the Swans while with Will Graham (17 possessions, 11 contested possessions, one goal, five tackles).
Lachie Weller had 15 possessions, Zeke Uwland 14 possessions, Sam Closehy 13 possessions, Leo Lombart 12 possessions, and Alex Davies 11 possessions and a goal in his return to the side. Jed Walter kicked two goals.
Corey Wagner played possibly the best game of his AFL career as Fremantle won a one-point thriller against Collingwood at Adelaide Oval. He had 16 possessions, three clearances and three score involvements, with an 87.5% disposal efficiency, but was better than his statistics suggest.
After a quiet start to the season Ben Keays returned to something like his best as Adelaide beat Carlton by 26 points at Adelaide Oval to open Gather Round. He had 16 possessions and three goals.
Mabior Chol, like Zorko, was reduced to a spectating role early when he pinged his hamstring in Hawthorn’s 40-point win over the Western Bulldogs. He’s facing a month out of the game.
Connor Budarick (15 possessions) and Oscar Baker (6 possessions from 53% game time) were part of a Dogs side that had their first loss for the season.
Jack Bowes was very good for Geelong in their 46-point win over West Coast at Norwood with 19 possessions, a goal and 10 score involvements, and Aliir Aliir had a couple of shaky minutes late in Port Adelaide’s 14-point loss to StKilda at Adelaide Oval before finishing with 16 possessions.
Brisbane are now 4-0 in Gather Round, having beaten North by 75 points at Mt.Barker in 2023 and 70 points at Norwood in 2024, Bulldogs by 21 points at Norwood in 2025 and now North by 26 points at Barossa Park.
Gold Coast are 1-3. They lost by 10 points to Fremantle at Norwood in 2023 and by 28 points to GWS at Mt.Barker in 2024 and beat North by 52 points at the Barossa in 2025 before the 32-point loss to Sydney at Norwood.
The aggregate win/loss record for each team in Gather Round is:-
4-0 - Bris, Geel, GWS
3-1 – Coll, Ess, Frem, Port, Syd
2-2 – Adel, Carl, StK
1-3 – GC, Haw, Melb
0-4 – NM, Rich, WB, WC
Adelaide, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Melbourne and Port Adelaide have played four times at Adelaide Oval, Geelong, Hawthorn and Western Bulldogs three times, Fremantle, StKilda, Sydney and West Coast twice, and Richmond once.
