Fifteen years ago Simon Black did something that was totally out-of-character ahead of the first Q-Clash between the Brisbane Lions and the Gold Coast Suns. He labelled ex-teammates Jared Brennan and Michael Rischitelli ‘mercenaries’.

Brennan and Rischitelli had made their AFL debut alongside Black in 2003 and 2004 respectively, and had played more than 100 games with the 2002 Brownlow Medallist. They were good mates.

But as the Lions and the Suns prepared to do battle for the first time at the Gabba on 7 May 2011 the local media was filled with an unlikely Black outburst against the pair and the new team down the highway.

He recounted how the AFL “have given them everything, and then some" on top of his ‘mercenaries’ comment.

Suns coach Guy McKenna returned serve by stating that the Suns were brought into the competition to clean up the mess left by the Brisbane Bears, originally based at the Suns’ Carrara headquarters.

And then Lions coach and triple premiership captain Michael Voss admitted he took McKenna’s comments personally and declared McKenna was ‘out of line’.

The question that has never been answered is “was it real?”  Until now.

The suspicion was always that it was a fabrication. That the clubs planned the verbal stoush to build up the rivalry, and used the most visible people to deliver the jabs that caught media attention far above the norm.

Today the always affable and ever-respectful Black confirmed as much. “Yeah it was a beat-up to get some attention,” he said.

“I remember walking up the stairs to do the pressa (press conference) and our media manager Dave Donaghy (now Broncos CEO) goes ‘let’s give ‘em something Blacky” .. and that’s what came to mind. I’ve been apologising to them since.”

The Lions paid for their well-intentioned call when they were shocked in Q-Clash #1 in front of the biggest Gabba crowd of the season. The Suns kicked the first three goals inside eight minutes via Danny Stanley, Brennan and Brisbane teenager Joey Daye, and led at every change.

And 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, and won by eight points.

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

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.

Black was best for the Lions with 31 possessions, and when Brisbane won Q-Clash #2 by 62 points at the Gabba in Round 21 he won the Ashcroft Medal and received the three Brownlow votes.

But all the numbers meant nothing in comparison to the big message which come out of the game. The city slickers had their collective pride hurt by the new boys down the highway. The rivalry was now real. Very real.

 And so it is today ahead of Q-Clash #31 at Carrara on Saturday at 5.15pm.

Fittingly, one of the most eagerly awaited battles between the two Queensland clubs will fall on Queensland Day and the 167^th anniversary of the State’s split from New South Wales.

The Lions have a 22-8 Q-Clash record, having enjoyed a 16-2 domination since 2017. But all that will count for nothing as both sides chase a desperately needed win after varying patches of poor form sees the Lions 9^th on the ladder at 6-6 and the Suns 5^th at 7-4.

The Lions have lost their last three games to Geelong (4^th), GWS (10^th) and Fremantle (1^st), and at their last start before a Round 12 bye the Suns gave up a 38-point lead at halftime and conceded the last four goals in a six-point after-the-siren loss to North Melbourne (13^th).

Only twice in 39 years have the Bears/Lions played on Queensland Day.  In 2009 they lost to Carlton at the Gabba by six points, when Brendan Fevola kicked eight goals, and last year they lost to Adelaide by five points at Adelaide Oval after leading by 17 points at three-quarter time. Ty Gallop debuted as Will Ashcroft was best afield in a losing side.

Q-Clash #31 will be significant for one very big absentee – Dayne Zorko.

Originally zoned to the Suns and traded to the Lions in the 2011 National Draft, Zorko will miss his first Q-Clash after 27 without a miss.

His first game against the Suns was his 10^th overall in Q-Clash #4 at Carrara in Round 17 2012. A spritely 23-year-old, he had 19 possessions in an 11-point Lions win, and has averaged 21.7 possessions and kicked 21 goals since.

The ageless warhorse has played more games, enjoyed more wins, had more possessions and kicked more goals against Gold Coast than he has any other AFL opposition.

Now 37 and sidelined by a quad strain, Zorko has a 20-7 record against the Suns and holds the record for most Q-Clash appearances, most Q-Clash possessions (585) and most Q-Clash tackles (145). And most free kicks for and against.

Ex-Gold Coast captain David Swallow (24) is next on the Q-Clash games list, ahead of injured Brisbane veteran Ryan Lester (22), while Swallow (478), Gold Coast’s Touk Miller (436) and Brisbane co-captain Hugh McCluggage (435) are the only other players to top 400 Q-Clash possessions.

Zorko is a clear leader in Q-Clash tackles from Miller (94) and Swallow (91), and ranks seventh for Brownlow Medal votes in games between the two clubs with eight.

Jarryd Lyons, who played for both clubs in the Q-Clash, and Brisbane’s Lachie Neale (12) head the Brownlow count two ahead of from Pearce Hanley, who also played for both clubs. Miller and ex-Brisbane pair Tom Rockliff and Dayne Beams are one vote further back.

Zorko has received 33 Q-Clash free kicks – one more than Miller. And he has conceded 45 – 16 clear of #2-ranked Swallow.

Zorko also shares with Beams and Lyon the distinction of having won the Ashcroft Medal twice in the same season. He did so in 2024 and Beams collected a double in 2017 and Lyons followed in 2021.

Miller heads the Ashcroft Medal count overall with four, from Beams (3), ex-Gold Coast captain Gary Ablett (2), Hanley (2), Lyons (2), Neale (2) and Zorko (2).

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

Four players have had 40-plus possessions in a Q-Clash. Rockliff (47) and Hanley (45) did so together in Q-Clash #8 in 2014, and were followed by Zorko in XX, when he posted a career-high 40,. Brayden Fiorini’s 41 possessions in QC21 in 2021 is best for the Suns.

Brisbane’s Ash McGrath holds the Q-Clash goals record at six – and has done so since Q-Clash #1. His mark was equalled by Dixon (2015), Cameron (2019) and Bailey (2022).

The biggest crowd for a Q-Clash is the 36,628 sell-out for the first final between the clubs at the Gabba last year, while the biggest home-and-away crowd is 33,612 at the Gabba in May last year.

The biggest Q-Clash crowd at Carrara is a sell-out 21,043 last year – just ahead of 20,833 in 2024.

On Saturday Brisbane co-captain Harris Andrews will be the fourth player to hit 20 Q-Clash appearances, and teammate Charlie Cameron, the leading Q-Clash goal-kicker all-time at 35, will look to stretch his lead of eight goals of ex-Sun Tom Lynch, and fend off the challenge of current Sun Ben King (24).

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan will coach his 19^th Q-Clash. He is a runaway leader among Q-Clash coaches from the Suns’ Stuart Dew (10), McKenna (8), Rodney Eade (6) and Damien Hardwick, who will coach his sixth Q-Clash on Saturday.

Voss and Justin Leppitsch each coached Brisbane six times in the Q-Clash, and Steven King, now in charge at Melbourne, coached the Suns in Q-Clash #25 in his third game as Suns caretaker coach in 2023.