AFL mid-season draft 2025: Coburg defender Donovan Toohey’s true boot could take him to the AFL
Donovan Toohey was sent home from the Northern Bullants three years ago. Now the second-year Coburg player with one of the VFL’s classiest kicks has caught the eye of AFL clubs ahead of the mid-season draft.
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It’s not entirely accurate to say Donovan Toohey missed the cut for the Northern Bullants’ list in 2023.
He was at the Ants, but briefly.
“I did a trial just to get a trial with them,’’ Toohey says.
“It was a practice game to get on to a trial squad and I didn’t even get through that.’’
Disappointed, he went back to Fitzroy in the Victorian amateurs and won the best and fairest, attracting the interest of another VFL club, Coburg, where his father, Marshall, was a player and assistant coach in the Phil Cleary era.
Again there were no guarantees or assurances. But this time he did make the list, signing a contract before Christmas.
And now, at the age of 25, he’s a leading player at his club and the competition.
When Lions coach Jamie Cassidy-McNamara answers the calls of AFL recruiters these days, they’re often asking about the defender with the kicking skills that set him apart from many VFL players.
It would surprise no one at the City Oval if Toohey gets taken at the AFL mid-season draft.
The climb from B section of amateur football to the VFL is steep, but Toohey has handled it impressively and with increasing influence.
He played 16 of 18 games for the Burgers last season and is averaging 32.2 possessions from five matches this year.
Also, he was Coburg’s best player in its exhibition hitout against the AFL Academy whippersnappers two weeks ago.
Burgers GM Nick Byrne, a former AFL recruiter, is sold on Toohey.
“He should be playing AFL footy,’’ he declares.
“His ability to find the footy, to impact games, he’s one of the better kicks of the footy that I’ve seen in my time around the game … and whatever level of footy he goes to, he beats it. Last year he showed himself to be at the level. And now he’s ahead of VFL level.’’
In Round 3 the Burgers played a Collingwood team loaded with 17 AFL-listed players.
Toohey had 38 possessions and as Byrne saw it, “he looked the best of them all’’.
His kicking, he says, is “nine-and-a-half out of 10 stuff’’.
“He’s got unbelievable hand-eye coordination, his ability to kick quickly to advantage is top of the tree and he can penetrate with his feet,’’ Byrne says. “He’s just an outstanding player.’’
*****
If not for his aptitude as a wicketkeeper, the VFL would probably have seen Donovan Toohey earlier.
He played football – for Parkside juniors and then Fitzroy – and cricket, going to Premier club Essendon when he was 15.
Toohey made his First XI debut for the Bombers in 2019-20; without deciding to put more time into one sport or the other, opportunities came to him at a young age at Windy Hill and he busied himself with them.
“I was in a semi-elite environment pretty early,’’ he says. His promise was evident when he was selected in the Vic Metro Under 19 team. The Bombers thought him a spiky and spirited keeper-bat.
He continued to play for Fitzroy, where his family ties went back more than a century: his great grandfather, Jim Toohey Snr, was in the Roys’ 1913 league premiership team. Two of Jim Toohey’s sons also played for the club.
Donovan Toohey kicked off in senior football with Fitzroy as a schoolboy and with a premiership in 2018 under the coaching of Luke Mahoney.
He played so well in the grand final that Mahoney thought him stiff not to be judged best-afield.
Cricket played through Covid but the pandemic silenced community football’s siren for the best part of two years.
“Honestly, I love them both. I tried to do footy in winter and cricket in summer for as long as I could,’’ Toohey says.
“Eventually I couldn’t do both, particularly with uni. I had to pick one.’’
It was football. It was Fitzroy.
Twelve months later, with improved fitness, he was runner-up in the club best and fairest and made the Premier B team of the year.
Donovan Toohey, WOW!
— VFL / VFLW (@VFL) August 11, 2024
🎥: Watch the Smithy’s VFL live and free on the AFL website and AFL Live Official App: https://t.co/3V9lTkSGTMpic.twitter.com/dFnCxXzqrr
Woweeeee! Donovan Toohey kicks a goal after the siren to give Fitzroy senior men a win against St Bede’s/Mentone 11.10.76 to 11.7.73 #heartattack#dreamfinish#GoRoyspic.twitter.com/7z2LgY2ATW
— Fitzroy FC (@Fitzroy_FC) May 22, 2021
Congratulations Donovan Toohey on a well made 118 in Round 3 of the Under 18 Cricket Victoria State Championships. pic.twitter.com/ViPyfYb1LQ
— The HalfTime Address (@HalfTimeAddress) January 12, 2018
In 2023 he broke through for Fitzroy’s top award.
Toohey says he started as a “kind of back pocket, little tagger’’ with the Roys. But he blossomed into one of the competition’s best midfielders. Mahoney saw a tough and dedicated player – the first to land at training and the last to leave – with a penchant for doing his best in big games.
“He always stepped up when you needed someone to step up,’’ Mahoney says. “The bigger the challenge to him, the more he rises to it. He’s that sort of player.’’
Fitzroy saw plenty of examples of his classy kicking.
Most memorably, he kicked a long goal after the siren to win a match against St Bede’s Mentone Tigers and in the grand final against St Bernard’s in 2023 he won a centre clearance and bombed one through post-high.
Toohey credits former North Melbourne star Matthew Larkin for the kicking skills that AFL clubs have noticed.
Larkin was an assistant coach at Fitzroy and spent hours with Toohey.
“I was always a solid kick,’’ he says.
“I remember a game – it was 2022, I reckon – where I missed a couple of easy ones, 20m kind of kicks. So I went to him (Larkin) and asked for some help and for the next 18 months, every Tuesday and Thursday I’d do 20 minutes with him before training. It started with easy, straight-line stuff and then you’d start side-on and square up your body and use him as a target. We’d use the centre-square line as an alignment thing to keep everything straight. That helped me immensely. I’d say kicking is my best trait now. A lot of it is down to ‘Lark’.’’
*****
Donovan Toohey was given his father’s old number, 33, when he signed with Coburg.
He’s worn it better than a few might have imagined.
“My thing was, ‘Get a contract, get close to playing, play and then play well’,’’ Toohey says. “I’ve been lucky enough to tick them all off.’’
As a young player he received little attention – not from junior representative team officials, not from the Northern Knights – but as a second-year Lion he’s getting glowing notices.
“Two years ago, when I was playing at Fitzroy, I would have you’d be kidding yourself if you mentioned the AFL to me,’’ he says.
“It would be everything I wanted and more. Footy is a big passion of mine. I can’t get enough of it. I watch most games on the weekend and get stats from every single league on a Saturday night. So it would be a dream come true. At the same time I’m a realist. I know it may not happen and I’m OK with that. From where I’ve come from, everything is a bonus, and I love playing at Coburg. Either way, it’s a win for me.’’
Originally published as AFL mid-season draft 2025: Coburg defender Donovan Toohey’s true boot could take him to the AFL
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