Retired Geelong great Zach Tuohy flags shock return to Gaelic football: ‘On the cards'

7NEWS

12-06-2025

Retired Geelong great Zach Tuohy is contemplating a shock return to top-level action.
However, the premiership hero — who hails from Portlaoise in Ireland — is considering returning home and playing the code he grew up on, Gaelic football.
Before being recruited by the AFL, Tuohy was a gun junior Gaelic footballer for Portlaoise, and regularly played in under-age Laois county sides.
He admits he was a late-bloomer in the sport but some of his heroics as a teenager caught the eye of AFL selectors in the 2000s.
In 2009 he was invited to a four-week trial with Carlton and in 2010 he was selected by the Blues in the rookie draft.
Appearing on Channel 7's The Front Bar, Tuohy — who retired from the AFL at the end of last year — revealed a return to his country's domestic code was 'on the cards'.
Front Bar funnyman Mick Molloy asked Tuohy if he would have been a legend in Gaelic football if he had stayed in Ireland.
The witty Tuohy responded with a grin: 'I still am in a lot of ways.'
Molloy: 'Did it ever occur to you when you retired that you could go back and play a season or two (in Ireland)?'
It was noted that former Irish AFL players Tadhg Kennelly (Sydney) and Marty Clarke (Collingwood) both played Gaelic footy after their AFL days were over.
'I'd love to, and it was the plan,' Tuohy admitted.
'There's a geographical issue; so much of my life here and how I commit to six months (over there) ...
'But for my home team, Portlaoise, I'm still harbouring ambition to go back and play.
'I have to work out some work stuff and see if we can make it happen. But that's on the cards, if I can.'
Tuohy is without a doubt one of the greatest Irish players to have made the switch to AFL.
While the late, great Jim Stynes won a Brownlow Medal, Tuohy has the record for the most AFL games played by a person who wasn't born in Australia.
After playing 120 games for Carlton, Tuohy then played another 168 games for Geelong, including the 2022 premiership.
He also represented Ireland four times in the International Rules clashes with Australia between 2011-2017.
International Rules is a blend of Australian and Gaelic football and was played annually between the two countries between 1998 and 2006.
After some heated battles and bad blood between Australia and Irish, it was then played randomly over the next 11 years and the last series was in 2017.
But Tuohy believes there should be a discussion to bring it back because the players 'love it'.
'I think there is an appetite from the players (to bring it back) definitely,' Tuohy said.
'And I think the rise of the W opens up a whole new potential to maybe do one in tandem with the men and the women.
'The players love it ... understand, as a spectacle both codes would argue that their own code is better than the combine code and that's been the criticism.
'But what an amazing opportunity to play for your country ... it's the only chance you get (for AFL players).'