Zach Tuohy on his career, Ireland and the future of International Rules
Affable Irishman Zach Tuohy is the AFL premiership winner with the game’s most revered moustache. In a new book he reflects on the highs and the devastating lows of chasing success half a world away from home.
How tough is it for a young Irish GAA (Gaelic football) player – like you once were – to relocate to Australia in pursuit of a professional career in AFL? It’s a huge move. For the most part, the guys and girls who end up coming out here are from villages that might have only a couple of hundred people in them. So the transition is even more significant for them than just the physical move. The scope and scale of everything is just exponentially bigger. But it’s been a hell of a journey. It’s fun to see so many other Irish people finding their way into the league.
You’re not a novelty now. Oh no, we’re like mice. If you see one of us, you know, there’s two or three more under the couch.
What would be a perfect day in your hometown of Portlaoise? Mine would always involve a game of some kind, so probably time spent at the GAA … Give me a county final win into some celebrations, and then we’d head home. A combination of family and football would be perfect.
You write in your book, The Irish Experiment, about the bereft look on your Mammy’s face when you first told her you’d been invited to an Aussie Rules trial. Tell us how she reacted to your move. My parents knew from the get-go that becoming a professional sportsperson was always my goal. Now growing up, I probably didn’t know it was going to end up being in Australia. I think when the opportunity came she knew she had to be supportive, and she knew that she couldn’t, and she never would, stand in the way. She had to be unselfish, in the sense that she had to let me do my thing. But she still won’t come to the airport. She did it once, and it was the worst thing ever.
It wasn’t just her, though. What about your gran? It sounds like she was obsessed with you. Oh yeah, I mean my sister gave her this lovely frame with pictures of all the cousins in it, and she took them all out and replaced them with photos of me. There were candles lit around the frame. If you’d seen it, you’d think there’d been a terrible accident. I remember one day I was playing in a county final and my mother called her at halftime to tell her we were winning. My grandmother started giving out to her because she let me be outside in the rain and I would catch my death.
Croke Park and the Melbourne Cricket Ground. What’s so special about these places? Both are home to each country’s indigenous sport. The uniquely Irish sport of hurling and Gaelic football, and the uniquely Australian sport of Aussie rules. For diehard supporters, they’re like a Mecca, a holy place. I think Croke Park, for me, growing up, was always kind of a pinnacle. I played on it a few times and it’s the best surface I’ve ever played on. It blows the G away.
Why did you think it was important to write a book about your early life and career? Look, I didn’t initially. I felt like this is typically a pursuit that’s reserved for the very cream of the crop and I don’t put myself in that category.
Well, what convinced you? What won me over is that somebody told me to imagine it like I was writing it for my kids. I almost wanted to treat the book like something of a how-to manual, but mine would probably be a little more of what not to do, especially with the off-field stuff and how I dealt with it.
You write about 2014 when after the birth of your first son you describe a kind of post-partum depression. Do you put a label on what you went through? It wasn’t until a few years later I thought about whether or not I did have some kind of depression, and the post-partum stuff is not typically associated with dads. My wife never knew every day on the drive home, I pulled over at the same place and cried in the car. I realise now that behaviour was not normal. It’s a red flag, but in the moment you go about your day and survive. And I think that’s what I did.
Are you better at speaking about your feelings now? For whatever reason, and this again is not a good thing, my personality just doesn’t really allow me to ask for help in that way. And even today, I would struggle with it even though I’m comfortable speaking about it as an anecdote. It’s just not in me to sit down and have those kinds of conversations. It’s one of the things I want my kids to avoid.
That difficult time in your life was probably compounded by the culture of your football club at the time. You were traded from Carlton to Geelong and credit the Cats culture with improving your life on and off the field. What makes for a good culture at a football club? When I think of good culture, all that means to me is how do you feel going into the club? How often do you dread going to work? For me at Geelong that was basically never. Even after a loss, even after consecutive losses, or playing poorly. I never went to the club with any kind of anxiety. A lot of clubs are trying to operate that way now but 10 years ago everywhere was a little bit more boot camp.
If I were to scratch the skin, are you a Cat or a Blue? I genuinely feel like I’ve got two clubs, but I’ve had the best years of my playing career at Geelong, my kids have grown up in Geelong, they’re Geelong supporters. I live in the town still. When you change clubs, it doesn’t matter on how good the terms are, there’s always scar tissue. That last year I didn’t enjoy it, and I didn’t feel valued, and those things leave a sour taste in your mouth. Enough time has passed that I genuinely find myself cheering for Carlton, and give out a few first pumps when they kick a goal.
Which player was the biggest nightmare for you to defend on? Eddie (Betts). He was the one who you can keep quiet for three and a half quarters, and then he’ll kick two or three from nowhere and win the game. Playing on Cyril (Rioli) wasn’t ideal for your sleep. And I have to say Stephen Milne was genuinely a nightmare. I was a bit of a niggler, I used to poke and prod and try to get under the skin of a lot of guys, and he thrived on that.
The International Rules series between Ireland and Australia hasn’t been held since 2017. Will we ever see it played again? I think the girls in AFLW are giving us a very good reason to reignite it. There are so many Irish girls in the league and the prospect of making it a double-header should be extremely appealing. From the Irish point of view, the players particularly love it. They love testing themselves against professional athletes because although the GAA is amateur they train every bit as much and as often as we do. They just do it on top of a job.
Finally, the moustache. It’s your trademark. What do you think your dear gran would have made of it? Put it this way, I could have a unibrow on my face and my Granny would have loved it, absolutely.
The Irish Experiment by Zach Tuohy is out now through Affirm Press.