Pride of Lions skipper will drive club forward

DAYNE Zorko says as he sat in the Gabba rooms late on Saturday night grappling with the pain of losing a knockout semifinal and watching his teammates battle the same emotions – a wave of fierce pride at what they had achieved this season washed over him.

The Lions skipper’s next thought was absolute conviction that every returning player would do extras over summer and rock up for pre-season with fire burning inside them to go further next year.

Zorko didn’t sugar-coat his despair that the dream run that took them from 15th last season to second at the end of the homehome-andand-away season had been brought to a jarring halt by a preliminary final-bound GWS outfit in one of the great finals of recent years.

He knows there will be times over the off-season when he wonders what might have been after the Lions gave GWS a four-goal head start and squandered opportunities to seal the victory.

For the second final in succession, the Lions won the statistical areas they value but couldn’t get the result.

However, Zorko also knows there was plenty there to drive the legs through the rigours of a pre-season.

“I’mfeelingii’mmfeelingfeeling a bit sour that we couldn’t go on with it,” he said.

“It feels strange that it is over, a bit surreal, we wanted to be there longer and I thought we were good enough to get through to the preliminary final.

“But one thing I did stress to the players after the game was to be proud of how far we have come.

“We stayed united and earned a double chance in the finals. We knocked over sides we haven’t been able to beat. We won on the road and we brought the people back to the Gabba, it has been a season for our footy club.

“To be honest I am as proud as punch of them all.”

Brisbane’s previous finals campaign in 2009 also ended in week two, and Zorko said every player and officials were determined that next year they would take the next step.

“The template is there now. We understand what it takes to get there and I am expecting everybody to come back with a fire raging in their belly,” he said.

“We know our football certainly matches it with absolutely everybody but we also understand that we need to great BITTER END: Dayne Zorko leads the Lions out at the Gabba. Stef Martin (above) and Allen Christensen and Luke Hodge (left) lament the defeat. continue to get better.

“That has been a strength of our sideside. Last offoff-season a large group got together and trained together before pre-season returned and the hard work paid off, that tells us what we have to do.”

Lions coach Chris Fagan shared Zorko’s pride at how his club had given the entire code an injection of enthusiasm after a tough decade.

“I’m proud of what our players and everybody at our club has done to do that – it was needed,” he said.

“The trick now is to keep going, not just produce it one year but keep producing it.”