Brisbane captain Dayne Zorko says he expects to play in each of the Lions’ pre-season video games after struggling a hamstring tear final week.
The 34-year-old had caught the attention along with his slim construct and elevated working energy in his twelfth pre-season on the membership however missed an intraclub match on Friday and will sit out a second this week on the Lions’ new Brighton Homes Arena headquarters.
“It’s a little bit of a setback but nothing to be overly concerned about – I just felt it a couple of weeks ago, and naturally we scan these things and we found a little tear in there,” Zorko informed SENQ’s breakfast program.
“Fingers crossed I’ve missed (Friday’s intraclub match) and that’s about it.”
Zorko stated he had been involved concerning the potential for the harm lay-off to influence the work he had achieved on his troublesome achilles, which has hampered him in latest seasons.
“The best thing about it is I’ve been able to run the whole time, so I’ve been able to keep up my load on my achilles, which has been really important and something that I worried about probably a little bit at the start,” he stated.
Zorko stated Brisbane coach Chris Fagan had remained his “cool, calm and collected” self as he awaits the top of the impartial investigation into allegations of racism at Hawthorn.
“He’s really energetic around the group like he always has been, and we as players have really appreciated it,” Zorko stated.
Fagan is taking over the duty of strengthening the Lions’ defence, which Zorko stated was the membership’s prime focus over the pre-season after a “really poor” final 12 months.
“I think defensively last year, we just leaked too many points,” he stated.
“There were three or four games that we conceded over 100 points, and in previous years we hadn’t done that.
“Keeping teams under a certain amount, whether it’s 10 goals or 11 goals, roughly that’s the number that seems to win the premiership … Geelong did it last year, Melbourne did it the year before, so it’s a really important benchmark for us to try to achieve.”
Zorko, who’s assured of taking part in within the Lions’ scratch match towards Sydney on February 24, is not any assure to steer the Lions once more in 2023, as Harris Andrews and Hugh McCluggage are thought of for the function.
Brisbane can be coping with a number of harm considerations to key defenders, with Darcy Gardiner (shoulder) and Jack Payne (sickness) working in direction of returns in Brisbane’s second follow match towards Geelong on March 2 after Marcus Adams was positioned on the inactive checklist attributable to concussion signs.
Source: www.news.com.au
