AFL news: Kangaroos great Brent Harvey on why Dayne Zorko is still playing great footy at 36

Brent Harvey was able to prolong his career to 432 games at age 38 — and he sees a lot of similarities to Dayne Zorko. Boomer looks closely at the Lions veteran and reveals his secrets here.

They say Father Time waits for no man but someone forgot to introduce him to Dayne Zorko.

The architect of Brisbane’s blistering ball movement has picked up where he left off last September, running even hotter than his All-Australian 2024 campaign to be the No. 1 ranked player in the AFL through the first month of the season according to Champion Data.

The Lions had a litany of heroes on their road to the premiership: inspirational skippers Lachie Neale and Harris Andrews, super spearhead Joe Daniher, ball-winning Swiss Army knife Josh Dunkley and so on.

But chief among them was a 35-year-old Zorko, who only two years earlier was battling niggling calf and Achilles injuries – and the prospect of his football mortality.

Not only has the Gold Coast product put a stopper in his slowly fading fitness, his shift to halfback has completely transformed Brisbane’s ball movement and in turn made him one of the most damaging players in the competition.

Dayne Zorko is dominating for the Lions. Picture: Getty Images

So influential is Zorko on the outcome of games that some sides are even weighing up whether to tag the mercurial Lion as well as, or in lieu of, the likes of Lachie Neale or Hugh McCluggage.

Now into his age-36 season, there still appears to be plenty of tread left on the evergreen veteran’s tires. To say he is in rarefied air would be an understatement.

Since 2006 – the furthest back Champion Data’s system can track for this particular stat – Zorko ranks equal-second for number of games played above 100 ranking points over the age of 35.

Of his 30 games played since turning 35, 21 of those have reached the triple digit threshold.

Only North Melbourne legend and VFL/AFL games record holder Brent Harvey, who retired in 2016 at the age of 38, has more.

With 36 games of 100-plus ranking points beyond age 35, Harvey remains the pre-eminent example of top-tier production in the twilight of an AFL career.

And what he sees in Zorko is a lot of what helped him stay at the top of his game long after Father Time was supposed to have come knocking.

“I think the biggest thing – and it looks like Dayne has been able to do this – is if you can keep your speed, you are going OK,” Harvey told Code Sports.

“One of my old coaches told me when I was 32 or 33, that if I kept my speed I would be able to play pretty much as long as I wanted. I was able to do that, and it certainly looks like Dayne has been able to do that as well.

Brent Harvey maintained his speed in the later years of his career. Picture: Colleen Petch

“Number one, he is an excellent kick. And number two he is a great decision maker. He sees it and pulls the trigger. He is aggressive with everything he does.

“And this is why Nick Daicos is such a good player – with their speed, they can get the one-two … you need those line breakers.

“If you are playing a fast brand of football like Brisbane, yes it is about ball speed but it can also be about leg speed and he (Zorko) is pretty much the best in the competition at giving, getting and going.

“He really becomes a 90m player because he runs 10m, gives it, gets it back and kicks it 45m. He has been fantastic to watch. He is a bloody good player.

“He is the starter. He is where Brisbane gets all of its scores from.”

Zorko, dishes it off to...himself 😂 pic.twitter.com/qum84XlIdG

— AFL (@AFL) March 23, 2025

Harvey recalled a key moment in his career when he decided to stray away from conventional wisdom and what the cutting edge of sports science was saying about age and training loads.

In his eyes, less was never more. Instead, it was about understanding what his body needed while also prioritising getting the work done on the training track, so that when it came to game day he knew he had the reps in his legs to perform at a high level.

“I would be interested to hear what Dayne says about this, but for me it was all about continuity,” Harvey recalled.

“I wanted to continue to train at the highest level and get my GPS up as high as I possibly could. It probably goes against what everybody says these days, that as you get older you need more recovery, but I didn’t go down that path at all and I think that helped me.

“I just wanted to keep pushing through so that come game time, when you’re stuffed in the third quarter, you knew you had done the preparation because you had worked hard. So for me, it was all about continuity and leg speed.”

Zorko has also seemingly solved that continuity conundrum, overcoming the various soft tissue issues that plagued him in his early 30s. He played all 27 games for the Lions last season en route to the premiership.

Zorko with his premiership medal. Picture: Getty Images

Harvey said maintaining his speed as he got older also meant communicating closely with the club’s performance and medical staff so that they understood his body and priorities.

“It was also about being smarter with things, so I changed a few things up,” he said.

“For instance, you would have three or four weight sessions (a week) but I would substitute one of those for a speed session.

“When I say speed session I don’t mean out on the ground running, but more explosive weights: picking up dumbbells, dropping them and jumping et cetera, versus doing the big squats that the other boys were doing.

“I felt that helped me maintain my pace.

“I know Dayne would have those relationships with the right people where he could have those conversations as well.”

Harvey said the defining traits that he saw in players like Zorko, Scott Pendlebury and Travis Boak, who have continued to play at a high level into their mid-30s, were their competitiveness and dedication to their preparation.

“You can see it – and I played against him a few times – when you’re watching him that he is a competitor,” he said of Zorko.

“He gets angry. He gets frustrated. When you see that, you know how much he still cares for the game. He is so entrenched in what Brisbane is trying to achieve.

“That competitiveness that I see in Dayne is something you need to have. If you haven’t got that, you can only go so far.”

So how much longer does Zorko have in him?

“That depends on his football,” Harvey ruled.

“I’ve seen people hit a brick wall and it dies really quickly and I’ve seen guys excel, like Dayne is doing. He is playing amazing football already in the couple of games I’ve seen this year – so he will definitely be playing next year. And it all depends on form from there.

“I don’t see anyone coming in underneath him to take his spot, so as long as he has that in his back pocket I think he will still be around for a few more years yet. I hope he is anyway, because I like watching him play.

“To be in his mid-30s and his form has propelled on an upward spiral … to be an All-Australian (last year) is a fantastic effort and a good reward for what he has been able to achieve.”

Originally published as AFL news: Kangaroos great Brent Harvey on why Dayne Zorko is still playing great footy at 36