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Connor Scanlon • April 17th, 2025 10:12 am
Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko has reminded the AFL world not to write off Collingwood, warning that recent criticism of their ageing list has only fuelled their resurgence.
Zorko says the media has made a mistake in questioning the Magpies even if their Round 4 side against Carlton was the oldest in V/AFL history.
The 5-0 reigning premiers meet the 4-1 Pies at the Gabba on Thursday night to kick off Round 6 and Zorko is aware the visitors will be a tricky proposition.
“I don’t know why they poked the bear,” Zorko said on SENQ Breakfast.
“They’ve responded as champions of the game do.”
The former Lions skipper singled out Collingwood’s experienced core as key to their strong early-season form.
“'Pendles' (Scott Pendlebury), (Steele) Sidebottom, (Jeremy) Howe, they’ve been instrumental in all their wins,” Zorko added.
“They’ve been fantastic for them to start the season, as expected.
“I mean, they’ve been great players for a number of games – hundreds of games.
“A little slip-up in Opening Round was never going to cause a concern for them.
“You don’t want to poke the bear too many times because it comes back to bite you.”
Looking ahead to Brisbane’s clash with Collingwood, Zorko made it clear his side is wary of the challenge ahead.
“We understand all the threats they possess, we need to be ready for it,” he said.
“They play the Gabba really, really well, I can’t stress that enough.
“They travel really well as a team and we’ll be expecting their absolute best again.”
While praising the Magpies, Zorko also addressed Brisbane’s worrying trend of slow starts, having trailed at half-time in four of their five games this season.
They needed every ounce of their comeback ability to get over the Western Bulldogs last weekend, trailing by 33 points at the main break before kicking 14 goals to four in the second half.
“I’ve sat here five weeks in a row now, and said we can’t keep doing this to ourselves,” Zorko said further.
“Maybe it’s just really hard to play a solid four quarters of football in the AFL, given how tough of a competition it is.
“It’s not the ideal way to be playing, I can tell you that, but we are really happy that we’ve got five wins on the board.”
Zorko also mentioned how momentum swings are so difficult to temper in modern day footy.
“It's disappointing we can’t stop the momentum of opposition teams when they seem to get a run on,” Zorko said.
“But, conversely teams are finding it hard to stop ours as well.
“I reckon for the last 18 months we’ve been talking about just how important momentum is in games.
“It is really, really hard to stop for both teams.”
The Lions enter the Thursday night clash on the back of three straight losses to the Pies, including last year at the Gabba by 20 points.
