That is the view of Magpies coach Nathan Buckley, who said losing the disciplined defender to a season-ending knee injury was going to make things extremely tough for his side.
"It's not going to be one bloke who can replace Alan Toovey," Buckley said on Tuesday.
"We're not going to be able to replace a player who's played for that period of time with that sort of surety in his own role.
"We're going to need to be able to spread that responsibility across the back six."
Buckley nominated Brent Macaffer, who suffered his own torn ACL last season, as the man most likely to fill the void.
"He's (Macaffer) got an opportunity to re-establish himself as a defender and we'll give him that chance," Buckley said.
With Magpies skipper Nick Maxwell still two to three weeks away from returning from a broken wrist, Buckley also envisaged more work for Paul Seedsman, Marty Clarke and Harry O'Brien.
The Pies coach said Darren Jolly (ribs) was ready to return to the senior side after impressing with three goals in the VFL, while Luke Ball's "professionalism" was evident in his first game for 54 weeks in Bendigo last Friday night.
Buckley also said speedy forward Andrew Krakouer was not "far away" from a return, after improving his fitness significantly in the VFL over the past couple of weeks.
