AFL 2022: Mason Cox set to wear prescription sunglasses during AFL games

Track watchers will have noticed Mason Cox sporting a new look during pre-season and he hopes to wear the unique eyewear during AFL matches this year.

Live Site … Collingwood supporters gather at the Collingwood club to watch the game. The wild emotional ride came to a very sad end for these fans. Picture- Nicole Cleary

Mason Cox is set to have a new look on the footy field in 2022.

The Collingwood forward has been trialling prescription sunglasses during pre-season and this is set to carry over into games.

The 30-year-old will need approval from the AFL before he can wear them in official matches.

The American forward has been wearing the sunglasses, made by Eye Sports Australia, after having a horror run with eye injuries in the past three years.

Cox has required six different surgeries over the past three years.

Three have been on his left eye, two have been on his right and Cox has also had to have cataract surgery.

Mason Cox will need approval before he can wear the glasses in games.

Mason Cox and Tom Wilson have a laugh at Collingwood training. Picture: Michael Klein.

Two surgeries in 2019 left Cox legally blind for a period and he has used contacts in 2020 and 2021.

On Saturday the American posted on his Twitter he was “very interested to see what nicknames fit” accompanied by laughing emojis regarding his new look.

While yet to be seen in the AFL, international sports have had stars wear prescription glasses or sunglasses while competing.

The most famous of which is basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while Horace Grant was also known for wearing glasses on the court.

In soccer Dutch star Edgar Davids wore glasses in the 1990s-2000s because of glaucoma.

Mason Cox sports a new look at training. Picture: Michael Klein.

PENDLES REVEALS NEW MOTIVATION AS PIES SKIPPER

Nick Smart

Collingwood all-time games record-holder Scott Pendlebury will captain the Magpies for a ninth consecutive season in 2022.

The 34-year-old, who is a five-time Copeland Trophy winner, is already Collingwood’s longest serving captain with 183 matches.

The 2010 premiership player and Norm Smith Medallist could reach the 200 mark in 2022 if he is able to play a near full season.

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He returned to training this week after fracturing his lower leg during a pre-season session at the start of December.

Pendlebury missed the final four games of last season after breaking his leg against Port Adelaide back in July.

“It is, and always has been, a great honour to lead the team and stand for everyone who loves the black and white,” Pendlebury said.

“But I’ve got added motivation this year, my ninth in the role, which is to assist the new coaching panel to develop what is a relatively young squad.

Scott Pendlebury will captain Collingwood again in 2022. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“There’s no shortage of strong and emerging leaders in our group and this year we’ll take the opportunity to further develop those players as future leaders and, as a group, we have a role to play in the education of something like 20 or 21 first, second or third-year players.”

In October, Pendlebury signed a two-year deal that should see him play a remarkable 18 seasons in the black and white.

The club’s other leadership appointments will be made in coming weeks.

How Browne plans to make Pies envied again

Collingwood president Jeff Browne has implored the Magpie Army to push through the 100,000 membership barrier to “stamp our authority as the best, most envied club in the AFL”.

In his new year call to arms to fans, the newly elected Magpies chairman urged Collingwood supporters to make a statement by “driving that number well beyond the 100 (000) mark”.

New president Jeff Browne wants to see a serious spike in Collingwood membership this year.

“We need to punch through so we can stamp our authority as the best, most envied club in the AFL,” Browne said in a video message.

“That’s the right position for Collingwood and it’s the one I’m determined to achieve.”

West Coast and Richmond sat atop the membership ladder in 2021, with 106,422 and 105,084 members respectively.

Collingwood was a distant third, locked in a neck-and-neck race with fellow big Victorian clubs Essendon and Carlton.

Browne said he wanted a big spike in 2022 to coincide with a new era at Collingwood under himself and new coach Craig McRae.

New Collingwood president Jeff Browne wants to send the Magpies membership through the stratosphere.

“We’re presently running at just over 60,000 members (and) we had about 82,500 last year, but I know there are millions of Collingwood supporters out there and we need you to sign up to show the players, the hardworking staff and everybody here at headquarters that there is an enormous army behind us,” Browne said.

“That will instil great confidence into our young group of players, our new coaches who have come on board.

New coach Craig McRae is all part of the new direction the Pies are heading.

“I want them to feel the strength of the organisation.

We are a big club as it is, but I want to make us an absolutely bigger club.

“I want to be able to be the most envied club in the AFL and it starts with our numbers and it starts with the revenue we can derive from membership, and how we can apply those funds to make our club even stronger.”

Browne also spoke glowingly of the club’s recent redevelopment of its Olympic Park training base, describing the renovated facilities as “best in class in the league for our players, coaches, medical and all our support staff.”