If Touk Miller looks a little uncertain when he runs out for QClash 30 at People First Stadium on Saturday, there is a very good reason - his long-time sparring partner won’t be there.

Dayne Zorko, Gold Coast junior turned Lions 300-gamer and always a big watch for SUNS fans in games against Brisbane, will miss a QClash for the first time.

After his 10th AFL game overall was against Gold Coast in QClash 4 in 2012, the 37-year-old Broadbeach junior has played 27 without a miss. Until now.

Zorko is out with a thigh strain as the SUNS, fifth on the ladder going into Round 13 and coming off a 14-day break, chase a win over the ninth-placed Lions to consolidate their place in the top four. And Miller continues his assault on the QClash record books.

Set for his 19th Queensland derby, Miller is sixth on the all-time QClash games list behind Zorko (27), ex-SUNS captain David Swallow (24), injured Brisbane veteran Ryan Lester (22), retired Brisbane defender Daniel Rich and Brisbane co-captain Harris Andrews (19).

Miller has missed one QClash in each of the last three years but still ranks third on the all-time QClash possession list with 436 – behind only Zorko (585) and Swallow (478).

He is also second to Zorko in all-time QClash tackles, second to Swallow in clearances, and third behind Swallow and Zorko for contested possessions.

The former skipper needs only two clearances to equal Zorko and 11 contested possessions to go past both Zorko and Swallow, but is well outside striking distance for tackles. It’s Zorko (145) from Miller (94) and Swallow (91).

Miller, too, could be a contender for an astonishing fifth Marcus Ashcroft Medal as best afield, having won the award named after the Brisbane 300-gamer and inaugural Gold Coast football boss in 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2023.

Miller heads the Ashcroft Medal count from Dayne Beams (3), Gary Ablett (2), Pearce Hanley (2), Jarryd Lyons (2), Lachie Neale (2) and Zorko (2).

Other winners have been SUNS Charlie Dixon, Tom Lynch and Matt Rowell, and Lions Will Ashcroft, Zac Bailey, Simon Black, Jonathan Brown, Charlie Cameron, Matthew Leuenberger, Mitch Robinson and Tom Rockliff.

The SUNS, looking to cut into an aggregate 8–22 QClash record and atone for a 53-point loss in their last game against Brisbane in the finals last year, will give three players their first taste of the Queensland rivalry tomorrow – debutant Jai Murray, boom recruit Christian Petracca, and eighth-gamer Lachie Gulbin.

Chasing their first QClash win are Will Graham (0–3), Jed Walter (0–2) and Ned Moyle (0–1).

Saturday’s game, which shapes as one of the most eagerly awaited between the two Queensland clubs in recent years, will be the first QClash to be played on Queensland Day.

It will be the 14th game between the two Queensland clubs at People First Stadium, with the SUNS having won two of the last three for a 5–8 home record overall.

The inaugural QClash went the SUNS way. After the Lions pulled level via an Ash McGrath major 28 minutes into the final term, the SUNS steadied through goals from Brandon Matera and Liam Patrick to win by eight points.

Jared Brennan won the inaugural Marcus Ashcroft Medal as best afield, having collected 30 possessions (21 contested), a career-high 14 clearances and a goal, and later picked up the three Brownlow Medal votes.

And Michael Rischitelli, who had been best afield in the SUNS’ first AFL game six weeks earlier, was next best on the stats sheet with 29 possessions (14 contested), 10 tackles and eight clearances.

But all the numbers meant nothing in comparison to the big message that came out of the game. The city slickers had their collective pride hurt by the new boys down the highway, and overnight the rivalry became real. Very real.

And so it is today ahead of QClash 30 at People First Stadium.

Petracca, Gulbin and Murray will take to 131 the number of players who have worn a SUNS jumper in a QClash. This includes four players who have played for both clubs – Jarryd Lyons, Pearce Hanley, Callum Ah Chee and Sam Day. Brisbane have used 116 players.

Murray, who will be 19 years, 95 days on debut, will miss the ‘youngest SUNS player in a QClash’ record held since 2011 by Swallow, who was 18 years, 169 days in QClash 1.

But Jarrod Witts, who played QClash #30 on his 33rd birthday in the finals last year, will become the oldest SUNS player in a QClash. He will be 33 years, 266 days and will go past Levi Casboult, who was 33 years, 136 days in 2023.

With the ‘sold out’ sign having been hoisted on Thursday this week, the People First Stadium QClash attendance record will be under threat. That stands at 21,043 last year – just ahead of 20,833 in 2024.

Ex-SUNS player Brayden Fiorini, now on the long-term injury list in his first season at Essendon following back surgery last month, heads the SUNS possession record in a QClash. He had 41 in QClash 21 in 2021 and sits alongside the Lions trio of Tom Rockliff (47), Hanley (45) and Zorko (40) as the only players to top 40.

Similarly, inaugural SUN Dixon shares the QClash goals record at six. That was in his Ashcroft Medal performance in QClash 9 at People First Stadium in 2015. He shares that record with Lions Ash McGrath (2011), Charlie Cameron (2019) and Zac Bailey (2022).

Lyons and Neale head the QClash Brownlow Medal vote tally with 12 apiece from Hanley (10), Miller, Rockliff and Beams (9), Zorko (8), Fiorini (7), Ablett and Black (6).