{"id":158169,"date":"2025-09-21T05:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T05:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158169\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T05:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T05:36:09","slug":"dayne-zorko-under-fire-for-swiping-at-protective-eyewear-of-mason-cox-during-afl-prelim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/158169\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayne Zorko under fire for swiping at protective eyewear of Mason Cox during AFL prelim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brisbane<\/a> veteran Dayne Zorko is under fire for a potentially harmful swipe at the medically-required goggles of Collingwood<\/a> big man Mason Cox during their preliminary final bout on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Cox had just slotted the first goal of the penultimate game of the season, having received a free kick given away by Zorko inside 50, and the big American went straight over to the Lions star to let him know about it.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Dayne Zorko under fire for goggles swipe.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

It was the beginning of a shaky start for Zorko, who was directly or indirectly responsible for three early Collingwood goals through turnovers and free kicks.<\/p>\n

In a heated tussle after the goal, Zorko was fortunate not to give away another free kick when he grabbed at Cox\u2019s protective eyewear.<\/p>\n

Cox started wearing the protective goggles, which also have prescription glasses in them, in 2022 after a career-threatening eye injury.<\/p>\n

At the time, he had multiple surgeries, suffered temporary blindness, and was unable to come out of his own dark bedroom or take in any light.<\/p>\n

Cox had the unique glasses approved by the AFL, and risks career-ending and potentially lifelong damage to his eyes if they get poked again.<\/p>\n

\"DayneDayne Zorko had a swipe at Mason Cox\u2019s protective eyewear. Credit: Channel 7\"DayneDayne Zorko took a swipe at Mason Cox\u2019s goggles. Credit: Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cPrelim final, they\u2019re fierce. Cox enjoyed it, he enjoyed the moment, and he let Zorko know,\u201d Brian Taylor said on Channel 7\u2019s commentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Zorko tried to take the glasses off! Look at that, he\u2019s had a go at them, tried to peel them off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a bit of skin as well, and there\u2019s just a touch of blood here early, and Dayne Zorko in the middle of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luke Hodge, who played with Zorko for two years at the Lions, said it should have been a free kick against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a free kick; it\u2019s the same as ripping off someone\u2019s headband, you can\u2019t do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely Zorko will receive anything more than a fine for the incident but calls are growing for him to receive a harsher penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWearing them for medical reason not just vision. Another poke in the eye could be life-changing for Cox. Opposition players won\u2019t learn with no punishment to deter them,\u201d one fan said.<\/p>\n

It was a hot start for Collingwood but they went into quarter time down by 20 points after a blistering term from the Lions.<\/p>\n

A second-quarter fightback from the Magpies provided some resistance, but the Lions were too good in a dominant second half, running out 29-point winners to qualify for their third straight grand final.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko is under fire for a potentially harmful swipe at the medically-required goggles of Collingwood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,3237,10133,588,85],"class_list":["post-158169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}