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Brisbane captain Dayne Zorko says his ugly sledge of Melbourne’s Harrison Petty “wasn’t unprovoked”, and there were “potentially” comments made about him that crossed the line.
Zorko’s awful midgame comment about a member of Petty’s family left the young defender in tears, but the Lions have said the situation has been sorted and they will continue to back their captain.
Speaking for the first time since Friday night’s game, Zorko continued to express his remorse but wanted to get his side of the situation across.
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“I apologised to Harrison on the final siren and that apology still stands, my remorse still stands, if I could take it back there’s no doubt I would,” he said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“I just want to get across that it was an intense game. Honestly from the first bounce there was toing and froing from both sides of the fence, players across the field probably stepped up to the line all game. And I acknowledge that I certainly crossed that.
“I just reckon it’s really important that Lions fans and fans in general know that it wasn’t just an unprovoked sledge and it wasn’t said in isolation.
“It was toing and froing for the majority of the game and remorsefully I accept that I’ve overstepped the mark.”
Asked whether there were any comments aimed at him that crossed the line, Zorko said: “Potentially. Potentially.
“But for me I need to acknowledge that what I said clearly crossed that line, and I fully and totally understand that through the heat of battle, words are said.
“In this case I overstepped the mark but you know, moving forward I need to learn from this. Potentially the whole industry can learn from this and understand that sledging can have serious effects on people.
“We need to be extremely careful in the way we do it, I’m not sure sledging will ever go out of the game, but certainly the words you choose to use, they need to be used wiser.”
Zorko explained he understood he crossed the line at three-quarter-time when Petty “made a beeline” towards him.
But he had to think back on what he had said during the game to figure out the moment he went too far.
“I thought, what have I said here that really triggered him off? Then retracing my words, that was clearly something that was really a trigger point for him,” he said.
“And that I’m extremely remorseful for.”
The Lions have so far chosen not to strip Zorko of the captaincy and he doesn’t expect much more to come of the incident in terms of punishment.
“I’ve had extremely long conversations with our senior administration at the club. They’ve heard both sides of the story,” he said.
“It should be well-known I take my role as captain extremely seriously and I have ever since I took over five years ago.
“On that matter, the captaincy has always been a decision made by the players in our playing group, that’s one thing that Fages (Chris Fagan) and the administration have said. Whoever’s captain will be chosen by their players and their teammates.
“I guess for me, until that’s up for decision again, I’ll respect whatever the players choose to do when that happens, but that’s all that we’ve sorted of touched on the matter.”
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