Zach Tuohy is enjoying retirement after an incredible career in the Australian Football League, and his story is very unique in many ways.
Of course there is the obvious, Tuohy was a Gaelic footballer who had never played Australian rules before, so when he was signed on a professional basis, it was a crazy journey from the start.
Unlike a lot of GAA players who go to Australia though, Tuohy never came back or took a break to play Gaelic football at inter-county level, he stayed in the AFL all the way through and it paid off as he won the premiership in 2022 with Geelong Cats.
Now in retirement, he will be remembered mostly for his time wearing the hoops jersey, but the Laois native will never forget when he first joined the Cats.
After agreeing a move from Carlton, Tuohy was waiting to get news that his transfer had been successful, and eventually it came through Instagram.
As the Leinster man writes in his new autobiography Zach Tuohy: The Irish Experiment, that Instagram post included a cardinal sin when it comes to the Irish flag.
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I woke up one morning and the first thing I saw was the Insta notification. The post was memorable for a few reasons.
Firstly, they had taken an action shot of me and photoshopped on Geelong colours - it was weird to see myself in the hoops for the first time.
'#WelcomeToGeelongCats @zach2e' said the caption. With a flag alongside it that they thought was an Irish flag. In fact, it was an Ivory Coast flag. Same colours, different order.
I'm surprised I noticed as I had only just woken up. My family and I laughed so hard at that. I didn't let the social media team live it down for a while.
Well, at least Tuohy saw the funny side of it, and they didn't make that mistake again when they signed future Irish players like Kerry's Mark O'Connor.
