Coast can’t blow its chance at Zorko 2.0

GOLD Coast has been urged not to make the same mistake by passing on a Dayne Zorko clone from the same club that cultivated the Brisbane Lions skipper.

Broadbeach Cats coach Craig O’brien says the club has a Zorko 2.0 in its midst and the Suns cannot let history repeat by letting him slip through their grasp.

Gold Coaster Zorko was famously snubbed by the Suns, who chose not to draft him as a Queensland zone selection and instead let him toil away with Broadbeach where he finally earned an AFL lifeline at the Lions after winning the 2011 NEAFL best and fairest award.

O’brien says Suns Academy prospect Jake Rogers, 17, would be leading Broadbeach’s best and fairest count if the season ended tomorrow, in just his first full season of senior QAFL footy.

The 175cm midfielder is the same height as Zorko, and shares all the qualities that have made him a 200plus game star for Brisbane Lions.

“I think you put him as the same type of player as Dayne Zorko. He’s very clean around the stoppage, he never fumbles and he has exceptional hands,” the Cats coach said.

“He wins his own footy. He’s an inside midfielder, even at his size, but you can put him forward and he’s very dangerous with how well he reads the ball off the back.

“He already has a couple of strings to his bow and he’s still just 17. We started him as a forward but he’s our number one midfielder right now.”

Zorko has spoken previously of his disappointment at being snubbed by the Suns, and has become a regular thorn in the Gold Coast club’s side, with Brisbane dominating the modern Qclash rivalry.

It appears Gold Coast is more aware of Rogers’ talents than they were Zorko’s, with Suns Academy head Kath Newman labelling the talented teen “absolutely amazing”.

“He’s small but quick, with clean hands below his knees and he just does some things on a footy field you scratch your head and wonder, ‘how the hell has he done that?’” Newman said.

One of Rogers’ key traits is his consistency. He rarely features outside Broadbeach or the Suns Academy’s best players.

O’brien says a big reason why is Rogers’ ability to win his own footy.

So damaging was Rogers in the Cats’ recent QAFL win over Labrador that rival coach Nick Malceski, the former premiership Sydney Swan, sent a tagger to the 17-year-old.