Retired Cat Zach Tuohy reflects on career as memoir released
Irishman Zach Tuohy has opened up about the “mental gymnastics” behind his decision to retire from the AFL, and why he started to become a “really bad loser”.
Geelong
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Retired Geelong star Zach Tuohy has backed the Cats for another shot at the premiership next year and says his confidence in the club’s chances almost forced him to consider playing on.
While he knew for a large part of this year that he would “pack it in” at season’s end, he says knowing his club was likely to be a big player in another September – and the fact he finished just 12 games shy of reaching the 300-game milestone, kept playing on his mind.
“You can do some mental gymnastics and justify playing on — I’m pretty sure Geelong will be there or thereabouts next year, I think they’re a bit shot of winning another flag,” Tuohy said.
“Had we won the prelim, we would have won it this year.
“But the truth is my mind kept drifting towards that and the milestone and that was a red flag for me.
“I don’t want to be that guy.
“I kind of knew I was going to retire and the second I made that decision it was a weight off my shoulders.
“I could have played on, physically and mentally I would have been fine to go on, but once I made the decision to retire it almost immediately it felt like it was obviously the right call.”
Tuohy, who played 168 games for the Cats over eight seasons after six years and 120 games at Carlton, has revealed he felt undervalued at the Blues before he made the decision to change clubs.
Under first-year coach Brendan Bolton in 2016, Tuohy nominated himself for the club’s leadership group.
But the results were unsettling.
Out of 13 players who nominated, he was ranked one of the lowest over 10 categories. He knew then it was time for a fresh start.
“I felt like (a leadership role) was the next step in my progression as a more senior player,” Tuohy said.
“You were ranked on things like professionalism, consistency and so on.
“I came dead last for everything and that was the start of the decline.
“I remember thinking, ‘I’m not valued here at all’.
“At that stage I hadn’t missed a game in four seasons but I was ranked 10th out of the 13 guys nominated for consistency.
“It p---ed me off – it felt like a popularity contest.
“Bolts didn’t rate me very highly, at least that’s how it felt.
“I was in the leadership group the second year I was at Geelong – but I was regarded so poorly at an average team before that.”
Tuohy, who left his life in Ireland behind after being offered a rookie contract with the Blues at the end of 2010, says Geelong was always his preferred club when he made the decision to move.
He was desperate for success and felt like the Cats were well placed for a premiership.
Not only did he recapture his best form in his first season at Kardinia Park in 2017 - Tuohy says he was a completely different player and credits his new surroundings and a much more supportive atmosphere for the change.
To this day, Tuohy says he hasn’t ever heard Cats coach Chris Scott raise his voice.
“It’s a pretty stressful environment anyway so I’m not sure why some clubs feel like they need to add to the stress, you don’t typically have to tell players when they’ve underperformed, you don’t have to make them wrestle on St Kilda beach the next day for them to know they’ve underperformed,” he says.
“I got to completely reset and be the player I wanted to be (at Geelong).
“That 2017 season was probably the best of my career.
“I was lucky to end up at Geelong, a club that puts its senior guys out there every year, they’re not quick to retire them.
“That isn’t true of most clubs.
“No other clubs really do it to the level Geelong does.”
After heartbreaking preliminary final losses in 2019 and 2021 and a grand final loss in 2020, Tuohy says he found himself desperate for a premiership and slowly becoming disgruntled that it may never eventuate.
He says the 2021 preliminary final loss was much harder to swallow than the grand final loss to Richmond the previous year, because he felt like it may have been his final shot at a flag.
“I was becoming a really bad loser,” Tuohy said.
“Coming close is so tough, especially as you get older.
“I became a worse loser later in my career, which I know is counterintuitive but it really started to beat me up.
“The preliminary final loss in 2021 was easily the worst loss of my career.
“That felt like the cliff.”
Just 12 months later he held the premiership cup aloft, draped proudly in the Irish flag. It also happened to be his 250th career game.
He could not have written a more perfect script for his milestone game. But Tuohy still has one regret.
“I’d love to go back and take some more photos because I was blubbering in all of them,” he said.
“Idiot. They’re going to live forever and I’m crying in all of them.”
While Tuohy is taking time to adjust to his new life outside of football, he hopes to pull on the boots again – but it will be back in Ireland for his homeside Laois in the Gaelic football championship season.
His plan is to stay in Geelong for the “foreseeable future”, but he hopes to spend a bit more time in Ireland with family and getting back to the game he’s played since he was a kid.
“I’d love to get back and play for the championship season, which is kind of around finals time here,” Tuohy said.
“I could have a few years playing at that level back home.”
Zach Tuohy’s book Zach Tuohy: The Irish Experiment is available in all good book stores. He talks family, footy and fatherhood in Saturdays’s gt magazine. Get your copy free in your Weekend Geelong Advertiser.
Originally published as Retired Cat Zach Tuohy reflects on career as memoir released
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