Oct 27,2024
Retiring AFL star Zach Tuohy has said he still harbours ambitions of representing Laois while confirming his intention to return to the club scene with Portlaoise in 2025.
The 34-year-old announced in August that he would be finishing with Geelong and the sport entirely at the end of the 2024 season, with the player controversially excluded from their matchday squad for the preliminary final loss to Brisbane the following month, meaning his Australian rules career ended off the field of play.
He leaves the AFL as a real stalwart though and one of the biggest successes of the Irish experiment having played 288 games for Carlton and Geelong across his 14 seasons with the highlight undoubtedly being the 2022 Premiership win with the Cats.
Prior to his first taste of Australia with trials in 2008, Tuohy had been ear-marked as a potential footballing star having won a Leinster MFC title in 2007 as an attacking half-back – and there may yet still be a route to him lining out for the O'Moore County having previously donned the jersey in the O'Byrne Cup.
"It seems unlikely now given the time constraints and how long I'd have to go back home to make that happen, but certainly playing for Portlaoise is on the cards next year.
"Can’t guarantee it because I’m not sure exactly what my work situation will be but I'm pretty confident I can make it happen.
"I actually tried to get home a couple of weeks ago but this whole retirement thing has not been as laid back as I was hoping. The six or eight weeks post-retirement has maybe been the busiest I've ever been but I owe it to them to pull on the jersey at least a few more times."
Understandably given his success, Tuohy has "no regrets" about his decision to pursue a professional sporting life and has backed former Geelong team-mates Mark O’Connor and Oisín Mullin to enjoy similar longevity in the AFL.
"That’s one of the big highlights of my career, getting to play with the Irish players," said Tuohy, who is uncertain if his permanent home will be in Ireland or Australia in the future.
"Last year I think was the first time ever three Irish players played for the same team at the same time, and that was really special.
"To be able to help those guys the way Setanta and Aisake (Ó hAilpín) helped me when I started is something I’m really grateful to be given the opportunity to do.
"And they're elite, the two of them are going to have very long careers here if they choose. Ultimate professionals, they came out primed and ready to go, far more developed physically and mentally than I was when I came out.
"They're just elite, high-performing operators."
Tuohy said that 2022 Premiership triumph, when they absolutely blitzed Sydney, provided closure on his AFL career after coming up short repeatedly prior to that.
"From a players’ point of view, we had lost preliminary finals, which are semi-finals as they would be known back home, we had lost the 2020 grand final.
"We actually got slaughtered in the 2021 prelim, which was the toughest loss of my career comfortably.
"So, to finally do it in 2022 – Geelong is a one-club town, everyone here lives and breathes it – it effectively defined my career.
"I said a couple of years ago on a podcast when asked, I would find it difficult personally to look at my career as a success if I didn't end up winning a Premiership.
"Now I don’t think it would have been a failure if I hadn't won one, but I think I would have found it hard to desire it as a success."
