Ironically Tuohy replaces his housemate Levi Casboult, who is currently recovering from a knee complaint and has now been placed on the long-term injury list. Casboult had himself won elevation at the expense of Luke Mitchell, who is steadily overcoming a shoulder injury.
For the 21 year-old Tuohy, a simple telephone call from senior coach Brett Ratten was all it took to reinforce his self-belief . . . even if circumstance precluded him from breaking out into the archetypal Irish jig.
I was in my car heading back from the Geelong-Hawthorn match at the MCG when the call came through,” Tuohy said. “I’d been at the game with Luke Webster, watching how the key defenders went about their business, when ‘Ratts’ rang to say that he wanted to bring me up to give me a bit of a feel of football at this level. I was delighted when I found out."
To be sure, Tuohy is an old head on young shoulders, and he was just as quick to temper his understandable enthusiasm. As he said, “I know I’ve still got a long way to go, but I’m heading in the right direction”.
“I thought that I’d been playing well lately, but it’s still come as a bit of a shock. I was expecting it but not expecting it, if you know what I mean,” Tuohy said.
“I know there can’t be any guarantees, but I’ve never doubted my ability to work at it and make it to the next level.”
Now in this the final year of his two-year tenure as an international, Tuohy has found his niche on a half-back flank for the Northern Bullants, making an impression with his quick rebound, definitive decision-making and precision field kicking.
Carlton supporters got a brief glimpse of the man wearing Robert Walls’ famed No.42 guernsey when Tuohy turned out against Collingwood in the NAB Cup match back in February.
“I got a taste of it in that game and didn’t feel that I was blown out of the water,” Tuohy said. “I felt that I could mix it with those guys.”
Jokingly suggesting that he felt like he’d stabbed his housemate in the back, Tuohy said that Casboult was one of the first to congratulate him on his elevation to the Carlton senior list - as was his parents Noel and Marie Tuohy, whose simple message to their boy over the phone was to “keep it going”, as they prepare for a month-long pilgrimage to Melbourne to be with their son.
Another great support has been Setanta O’hAilpin, who has himself experienced the epic global sporting adventure, and the Carlton defensive coach Gavin Brown, for whom Tuohy has nothing but the deepest admiration.
