There is much more than meets the eye to Port Adelaide key defender Brandon Zerk-Thatcher. 

The 26-year-old is strong and competitive on field, but off the track, he’s a self-proclaimed ‘softie’ who loves card collecting and pet cats Olive and Pickle. 

In his second year at Alberton, the 26-year-old former Bomber is feeling happy and settled, despite a pre-season injury setback, which saw him miss the first 10 rounds of the AFL season. 

“It was about 12 to 14 weeks,” Zerk-Thatcher told club podcast ‘Peeled’. 

“The worst part was I couldn’t do anything for six weeks. I was told I couldn’t exercise or do any cross-training or anything, so after those six weeks I had to almost have another mini pre-season again. It was challenging for sure.” 

The rehab process can be lonely, although Zerk-Thatcher said the club kept him engaged as much as possible throughout the three months he was sidelined. And for a good chunk of time, he had teammates Todd Marshall and Jack Lukosius for company. 

“There are essentially two groups – you’ve got your players who are in rehab and then everyone who is in the natural schedule,” he said. 

“It can be pretty isolating at times because you’re on your own timeline doing different things and you’re progressing in different ways. You get that fomo (fear of missing out) of playing footy and you see everyone training, just little things like that are pretty flattening. It is good that we have good support people around us and you do get involved with your teammates – you’re still in all the meetings and you’re still learning with everyone so you’re not completely by yourself, but there’s definitely parts that are challenging.” 

Over the past year, a new hobby has captured Zerk-Thatcher’s attention.  

Born from a love of Japanese manga series ‘One Piece’ (which he claims to have watched all 1300 episodes of…twice), the softly spoken Murray Bridge native recently discovered the trading cards of the same name.  

“I’m a pretty big fan of (One Piece),” he said. 

“I didn’t know until maybe less than a year ago that they did trading cards. I just bought a box one day and I got hooked. I’ve collected them ever since and then I just started dabbling in all sorts of cards. I’ve bought Pokémon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, soccer cards, basketball cards. Fifteen grand is the card I’ve bought that’s worth the most…it’s kind of like the holy grail of the set. It’s pretty crazy, the money in cards, it’s all interesting to me. I just love it. I love everything about it.” 

Zerk-Thatcher was traded to Port Adelaide in the same off-season as ruckman Jordon Sweet, and the two have formed a close friendship since. 

Sweet, along with a few other teammates, has joined him in his trading card hobby, with a group of players recently visiting a card shop on a quiet afternoon in Brisbane, in the lead-up to the side’s Round 17 clash at The Gabba. 

“I don’t think many people are like me (at the club), but I get along really well with Jordon Sweet,” Zerk-Thatcher said. 

“I am dragging a few of the boys into these card shops and now they’re becoming obsessed. 

“There’s so much that goes into it. I’ve probably got 120 cards that I want to grade…you ship them off to America and the PSA company will grade them out of 10. The better the grade, the better the card is.” 

Looking back on his early years, life has changed greatly for Zerk-Thatcher – as a 13-year-old coming from a modest upbringing, he was compelled to get himself a job at the local IGA so he could save up to buy car when he turned 16.  

Even as a young teenager, he was in tune with the financial pressure his parents were under, and how travelling regularly to his SANFL club Sturt was creating added strain. 

“I probably didn’t go enough to Sturt because of the travel (from Murray Bridge) and I’d have to rely on mum to drive me up three times a week,” he said. 

“I just felt bad for mum. I was like ‘mum you don’t have to drive me all the way there, it costs a bit of money. Don’t stress about it too much’. I ended up stopping going to Sturt for a year or two, probably in those important years, under 16s, under 18s. And then that last year of 18s I actually wanted to get up to Sturt and put my best foot forward. And I didn’t get the call up until probably halfway through my top-age year of under 18s.  

“I played ruck/forward, so it’s in the kit bag! I was local leading goal-kicker, Ken, so if there’s ever a chance I would love to go forward!” he quipped. 

Perhaps due to the disruption in his development, Zerk-Thatcher wasn’t taken in his draft year. Instead, it was a year later he landed at Essendon. 

He recalls the dizzying days following his name being called – he suddenly found himself on a plane, relocating to Melbourne, completely oblivious to the expectations of AFL football. 

“When I first got drafted, I didn’t really know those pressures and the big Victorian club (stuff),” he said. 

“I didn’t really watch too much footy. I remember sitting down with a couple of the recruiters and they were asking me whose spot I was going to take, and I couldn’t even tell you who was in the side! I was pretty oblivious to it all when I first started there but as you do when you go to the club, you learn.” 

Coming home to South Australia five seasons later was originally driven by the unsettled feeling that grew throughout covid and his time in the AFL hub.  

Interestingly though, Zerk-Thatcher’s bid to move to Port Adelaide at the end of 2022 was hampered by the sudden availability of number one pick Jason Horne-Francis. 

“I remember (Port Adelaide was) getting Jason Horne-Francis that year. I was talking to Port and they sort of said ‘look we probably can’t really do much for you this year, we obviously have to give up a fair bit for Jason’,” he said. 

“I was like ‘yeah no worries, if it’s still there next year, it’s still there’. That’s when I started getting a few more games in the AFL, which was nice.” 

The following season, the deal was done, and Zerk-Thatcher left his 51 games at the Bombers behind to face a fresh start at Alberton. 

“I just wanted to come home and play good footy,” he said. 

“I’m a big believer in if you’re happy, you play well. When I got over here, I just wanted to get in the side, prove myself again and I was lucky enough to have a pretty good first season here and we ended up getting into a prelim. We ended up playing in finals, I won my first final, which was awesome.” 

Quiet and well-liked at the club, Zerk-Thatcher always has time for a conversation with teammates and staff, although his reserved nature doesn’t hold him back from giving his all on game day. 

“Mum raised me to be a big softie,” he said. 

“(But) I’ve got a competitive personality. I’m probably not the angry person you see out on the footy field a lot. I think I’ve just got a competitive nature to be honest. I like winning, I don’t like to lose.” 

Listen to the full episode of ‘Peeled’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or the club website.