Zach Tuohy

Zach Tuohy
Personal information
Full name Zach Tuohy
Date of birth (1989-12-10) 10 December 1989[1]
Place of birth Portlaoise, Laois, Ireland
Original team(s) Portlaoise GAA/Laois GAA
Draft 73 (2010 AFL Rookie Draft)[2]
Height/Weight 187 cm / 91 kg
Position(s) Midfield, Half-back
Club information
Current club Carlton
Number 42
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
2011– Carlton 99 (34)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of Round 1, 2016 season.
Career highlights

AFL Coaches Association All-Australian team: (2015)

Zach Tuohy (born 10 December 1989)[1] is a professional Australian rules footballer currently playing for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League. Tuohy grew up in Ireland and played Gaelic football before making a code switch to Australian rules football.

Tuohy began his sporting career as a Gaelic footballer at the Portlaoise club. He became a regular in Laois underage county sides.[3] He won a Leinster Minor Football Championship with them in 2007.

Tuohy attracted the attention of Australian rules football recruiters from the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League, a club based in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.[3] 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.[4] 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.[2] 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,[5] and he made his AFL debut in Round 11 against Port Adelaide,[6] and went onto 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.[7] 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 penalty kicks.[8]

Tuohy had his strongest season to date in 2015, running third in the John Nicholls Medal count[9] 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.[10] He played his 100th game in early 2016, becoming only the fifth Irish player in the league to reach the milestone.[11]

Tuohy represented Ireland[12] in International rules football in both the 2011 and 2013 series. He scored a goal in the first Test in 2013 at Breffni Park.[13][14]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Carlton Blues Rookie player list
  2. 1 2 Carlton Football Club 2010 Rookie Draftees
  3. 1 2 "Laois continue to feel pinch as Tuohy embarks on 'Rules' trial". Irish Independent (Independent News & Media). 7 August 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2008.
  4. ↑ (20 August 2009) Tuohy ten weeks from AFL move
  5. ↑ de Bolfo, T., Irishman earns list elevation, 27 April 2011, Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  6. ↑ Gill, Katrina (5 Jun 2011). "Blues star". Australian Football League. Retrieved 5 Jun 2011.
  7. ↑ "Simpson wins John Nicholls Medal". Carlton Football Club. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
  8. ↑ Robinson, Mark (13 June 2011). "Zach Tuohy bomb never in doubt, say Irish recruit's parents". Herald Sun. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  9. ↑ Loretta Johns (17 September 2015). "Cripps wins John Nicholls Medal". Carlton Football Club. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  10. ↑ Loretta Johns (22 September 2015). "Tuohy an AFLCA All-Australian". Carlton Football Club. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. ↑ "Laois duo among four added to Irish IRS squad". Hogan Stand. 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  13. ↑ "Ireland 57-35 Australia". RTÉ Sport (RTÉ). 19 October 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  14. ↑ "Ireland 116-37 Australia". RTÉ Sport (RTÉ). 26 October 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2013.

External links

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