Brisbane captain Dayne Zorko has welcomed Josh Dunkley’s decision to move to the Lions with open arms.
The Western Bulldogs midfielder on Monday informed the Lions of his desire to join the club this trade period and the two clubs will now work on a “mutually beneficial outcome”.
Zorko spoke of Dunkley’s preference to join the Lions, suggesting it shines a light on the culture that has been created at the club in recent years, even if he admits he is none the wiser on how these types of trades actually work.
“This sort of thing happens most years and the people behind the scenes, recruiters and list managers, they always seems to get the job done, fingers crossed,” he said on SENQ’s Pat & Heals.
“It’s awesome for our club that someone like Josh Dunkley wants to come to our football club.
“It shows how far we actually have come as a club in the past few years. To start attracting talent like Josh Dunkley, like Lachie Neale, like Joe Daniher, it really says a lot about the position that we’re in and the culture that we’ve built.
“It’s fantastic, but I’ve got no idea how it works. Hopefully it lands on our number and it’s all good.”
The good news for the Lions comes on the back of their disappointing Preliminary Final defeat to Geelong.
They were brushed aside by the powerful Cats, losing by 71 points at the MCG last Friday night to bring to an end their season without a whimper.
What was his most lingering emotion after the loss?
“Probably the fact that we didn’t really throw a punch on Friday night was the most disappointing thing,” Zorko added.
“The mood and the feeling around the camp was really positive coming into the game, really positive.
“But unfortunately for us, and to Geelong’s credit, they just outworked us, outplayed us, and we really didn’t have any answers. We kept playing into their hands by kicking long down the line which really hurt us in the end.
“When you can’t get your ball movement up and going and the ball is just flying back over your head every time you kick it, it was pretty disappointing.
“We’ll learn a lot from that game and all we can do is pick ourselves up and get ready to go again next year.”
After the disheartening defeat, the Lions are now preparing for the off-season additions of Dunkley as well as prized father-son prospect Will Ashcroft in November’s draft.