Zach Tuohy

Zach Tuohy (born 10 December 1989) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League. He previously played for the Carlton Football Club from 2010 to 2016. Tuohy grew up in Ireland and played Gaelic football before making a code switch to Australian rules football.

Zach Tuohy
Tuohy playing for Geelong in August 2018
Personal information
Full name Zach Tuohy
Date of birth (1989-12-10) 10 December 1989
Place of birth Portlaoise, Laois, Ireland
Original team(s) Portlaoise GAA/Laois GAA
Draft No. 73 2010 rookie draft
Height 187 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight 93 kg (205 lb)
Position(s) Defender
Club information
Current club Geelong
Number 2
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
2010–2016 Carlton 120 (40)
2017– Geelong 085 (27)
Total 205 (67)
International team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
2011–2013 Ireland 4 (1)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2020.
2 State and international statistics correct as of 2013.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Gaelic football

Tuohy began his sporting career as a Gaelic footballer at the Portlaoise club. He became a regular in Laois underage county sides.[1] He won a Leinster Minor Football Championship with them in 2007.

Tuohy represented Ireland[2] in International rules football in both the 2011 and 2013 series. He scored a goal in the first Test in 2013 at Breffni Park.[3][4]

Australian football

Carlton

Tuohy attracted the attention of Australian rules football recruiters from the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League, a club based in the inner city of Melbourne.[1] During 2009, Tuohy travelled to Melbourne to undergo a four-week trial with the club. The club was sufficiently impressed, and offered Tuohy an International Rookie contract.[5] This contract ensured Tuohy would be recruited by Carlton; he was then selected with the club's sixth round selection in the 2010 AFL rookie draft (No. 73 overall) as a formality.[6] Tuohy became the fourth Irish player to spend time on the Carlton list (and he would be only the second to play a senior game).

Tuohy began the 2010 season playing in the club's VFL-affiliate, the Northern Bullants. He developed as a tagger, and then as a rebounding half-back. He was temporarily elevated to the senior list in place of the injured Luke Mitchell in early 2011,[7] and he made his AFL debut in Round 11 against Port Adelaide,[8] and went on to play eleven games for the season. By 2012, he was a regular in the Carlton team, and in 2013 he played every match for the season and finished seventh in the club Best and Fairest.[9] Over this time, Tuohy became noted for his long, accurate kicking, and regularly drifted from the backline to half-forward to kick long goals from beyond the 50m line; he had shown a similar aptitude for long-range kicking in Gaelic football, in which he was his county's designated kicker for 45m plus free kicks.[10]

Tuohy had a strong season in 2015, running third in the John Nicholls Medal count[11] and being selected as the small defender in the 2015 AFL Coaches Association All-Australian team, by virtue of polling the most votes of any small defender in the AFL Coaches Association MVP award.[12] He played his 100th game in early 2016, becoming only the fifth Irish player in the league to reach the milestone.[13]

Geelong

At the conclusion of the 2016 season, Tuohy requested a trade from Carlton and he nominated Geelong as his preferred destination.[14] He was officially traded to Geelong in October.[15]

On 21 July 2018, Tuohy took a contested mark with 10 seconds of play remaining and then kicked a goal after the siren to secure Geelong a two-point victory against Melbourne. Tuohy played his 200th game against Richmond on the 11/09/2020, becoming just the second ever Irish AFL player to reach this milestone after the great Jim Stynes. [16]

Statistics
Statistics are correct to the end of the 2020 season [17]
Legend
 G  Goals  B  Behinds  K  Kicks  H  Handballs  D  Disposals  M  Marks  T  Tackles
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game)
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
2011 Carlton 42113174641383190.30.16.75.812.52.80.8
2012 Carlton 4219511297920839600.30.16.84.210.92.13.2
2013 Carlton 422413918212330551610.50.47.65.112.72.12.5
2014 Carlton 42224619511330864310.20.38.95.114.02.91.4
2015 Carlton 422293239175414107240.40.110.98.018.84.91.1
2016 Carlton 42226527516844380480.30.212.57.620.13.62.2
2017 Geelong 22533375240615115450.20.315.09.624.64.61.8
2018 Geelong 223103336168504117290.40.114.67.321.95.11.3
2019 Geelong 2183102529835078170.20.614.05.419.44.30.9
2020[lower-alpha 1] Geelong 219882348231674170.40.412.34.316.63.90.9
Career 205 67 54 2291 1310 3601 756 341 0.3 0.3 11.2 6.4 17.6 3.7 1.7

Notes

  1. The 2020 season was played with 17 home-and-away matches per team (down from 22) and 16-minute quarters with time on (down from 20-minute quarters with time on) due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

See also

References
  1. "Laois continue to feel pinch as Tuohy embarks on 'Rules' trial". Irish Independent. Independent News & Media. 7 August 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2008.
  2. "Laois duo among four added to Irish IRS squad". Hogan Stand. 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  3. "Ireland 57–35 Australia". RTÉ Sport. RTÉ. 19 October 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  4. "Ireland 116–37 Australia". RTÉ Sport. RTÉ. 26 October 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  5. (20 August 2009) Tuohy ten weeks from AFL move Archived 13 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Carlton Football Club 2010 Rookie Draftees Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  7. de Bolfo, T., Irishman earns list elevation Archived 8 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine, 27 April 2011, Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  8. Gill, Katrina (5 June 2011). "Blues star". Australian Football League. Archived from the original on 20 May 2012. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  9. "Simpson wins John Nicholls Medal". Carlton Football Club. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  10. Robinson, Mark (13 June 2011). "Zach Tuohy bomb never in doubt, say Irish recruit's parents". Herald Sun. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  11. Loretta Johns (17 September 2015). "Cripps wins John Nicholls Medal". Carlton Football Club. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  12. Loretta Johns (22 September 2015). "Tuohy an AFLCA All-Australian". Carlton Football Club. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  13. Jay Clark (2 April 2016). "Carlton's Zach Tuohy becomes fifth Irish footballer to play 100 AFL games". Herald Sun. Melbourne, VIC. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  14. Bowen, Nick (10 October 2016). "Second star Blue wants out, requests trade to Geelong". AFL.com.au. Bigpond. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  15. "Tuohy, Smedts swap clubs in complex deal". AFL.com.au. Bigpond. 20 October 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  16. "Match report: Cats down Dees after the siren". AFL.com.au. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  17. "Zach Tuohy Stats". AFL Tables. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
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