WIT OF THE IRISH
ZACH Tuohy hosted a comedy show at Simonds Stadium yesterday . . . and then a press conference broke out.
The 27-year-old Geelong defender was in fine form when speaking to the media, cracking gags as the countdown starts to Friday night’s preliminary final blockbuster against Adelaide.
In a time where everything is all very serious, Tuohy’s attitude was a refreshing break.
He picked his targets during his seven-minute cameo, laughing at the muddle Tom Stewart found himself in to when he told reporters he had gastro.
He praised Zach Guthrie’s maturity and courage “for a guy who weighs 24kg”.
Said he would be talking to Cats assistant coach Matthew Scarlett about letting Jed Bews have the job on tricky Adelaide forward Eddie Betts.
And he said Patrick Dangerfield was suffering a sore neck after having to carry that “big melon of his” following his first half blitz in the win over Sydney last week.
Not surprisingly, the Irishman said he was not nervous going into the first preliminary final of his 144-game career.
“I haven’t played too many finals. I’m still just kind of enjoying the ride,” Tuohy said.
“A lot of guys here have been through this before. This is the furthest I have ever progressed.
“It’s different, but it’s a big part of why I came here because I thought we could have some success. I’m just enjoying it.
“It’s a big game, but it’s still just footy. It’s what we do every week.
“I’ll probably get nervous just before the game but I’m not finding it too hard to treat it like a normal game.”
Tuohy has been one of Geelong’s big trade successes, setting the club alight with his run off half-back.
A switch to The Cattery was a chance to play finals after starting his career at Carlton.
Tuohy said he still watched the AFL finals series when he was not competing, but found it hard to watch the grand final.
“I always find it got hard to watch when it got to the real pointy end. There’s probably a little bit of jealousy there that you weren’t part of it,” he said.
“I like to watch the footy shows and I’ll sit down and watch most games during the week.”
The good news for Geelong fans is Tuohy has not been struck down by gastro.
Tom Lonergan was a late withdrawal from the team that handed Sydney its finals exit with food poisoning.
Stewart told reporters on Monday he had gastro and was about to go home, but he trained and was not sick after all. His joke, unlike Tuohy’s, fell flat.
“There’s not a whole lot going on upstairs with ‘Stewy’,” Tuohy said. “You’re going to have to take most of what he said with a pinch of salt.
“If he does have an illness it’s confusion.
“It’s pretty funny, though.”