Lions veteran Dayne Zorko floored as Chris Fagan honours promise two years in the making
When Dayne Zorko gave up the captaincy of the Lions after the 2022 AFL season, coach Chris Fagan made a promise.
Zorko didn't believe him at the time, but Fagan on Saturday afternoon made good on it when he sent Zorko onto the dais to collect the premiership cup with co-captains Lachie Neale and Harris Andrews.
The 35-year-old said that was a mark of the man Fagan is.
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"When I handed over the captaincy in 2022, he actually said to me 'if we ever get to that day, you're going to be the first one up there holding up the cup'," he said on Nine's Sunday AFL Footy Show.
Dayne Zorko and Chris Fagan share a hug after the match. via Getty Images
"At the time I thought 'oh yeah, sure mate', but he came up to me and said 'you're going up'. That was a really special moment.
"I'm so grateful he kept that word, but for him to even remember it was amazing.
"That's the sort of guy he is."
The Lions' 60-point thrashing of the Swans at the MCG was the culmination of a decade-long rebuild, of which Zorko has been part of from the start.
Fagan, Lachie Neale, Zorko and Harris Andrews hold aloft the premiership cup. AFL Photos via Getty Images
The Lions veteran made his debut with the club in 2012, four and a half years before Fagan arrived at the end of 2016.
Having sat in Alastair Clarkson's box for each of the Hawks' four premierships, he took the Lions to their first finals appearance in a decade in 2019. Remarkably, they only missed out on the minor premiership on percentage.
In their sixth-straight September appearance, the Lions finally got the job done. Fagan said it was the best moment in his 40-years of coaching.
"When you're the coach of an AFL team you've got to put up with a lot of scrutiny and a lot of pressure," he said.
"To come from where we've come from eight years ago, to be able to do this today is a very special moment.
"We were in a lot of trouble at the halfway mark of the season, and we found a way to get ourselves back in the contest and we're here today.
"So yeah, I'd probably say that (it is my greatest moment)."
