“He’s the first picked every week.”

It’s one of football’s oldest clichés. But for Alan Toovey, it rings true.

For more than a decade under two different coaches, Toovey was the wallpaper of the Collingwood backline: Much changed around him, but he remained the constant.

He played 17 or more games in six separate seasons, and was one of just six Magpies to feature in all 26 games during the premiership year of 2010.

Standing 189cm with deceptive leg speed, Toovey was a man for any occasion.

Need someone to lock down on Eddie Betts?

Tooves is your man.

Is Paul Chapman getting off the leash?

Send Toovey onto him, stat.

Someone has to stand Jack Gunston. Who do you call?

Who else but Alan Toovey?

A case in point was West Coast’s key forward Jack Darling, who long had his struggles whenever the No. 34 was sent in his direction.

But Toovey didn’t have it all his own way. In fact, his journey to the top was harder than most.

Overlooked in the 2004 National Draft, he was forced to make do with a spot on Collingwood’s rookie list ahead of the 2006 season.

Crossing over from Western Australia, Toovey spent the duration of ’06 with Williamstown in the VFL before breaking through for his senior debut in the third game of 2007.

In front of 70,569 fans on a Friday night, he kicked three goals in a 25-point win over Richmond.

As unlikely as it seemed at the time, it did not mark the arrival of Collingwood’s next goal kicking goliath. Toovey would kick just six more goals in his next 158 games.

It took another two years for Toovey to cement himself in Mick Malthouse’s line up, but once he settled, he was there to stay.

Between 2009 and 2012, Toovey played 92 of a possible 101 games, including 13 finals.

In 2010, as if to underline his importance, he ranked third in tackles and fifth in one percenters, and was one of only two players to spend the entirety of the 2010 Grand Final Replay on the ground.

For a period of time, as the ‘Tooooves’ chant echoed around the grandstands, it seemed like nothing would get in his way. Not even Tom Hawkins, who crunched his sternum midway through 2011.

The result? Just a one-week layoff. Few players were braver than our Tooves.

Eventually, though, the injury Gods caught up with him. A ruptured anterior cruciate ligament on ANZAC Day 2013 forced him onto the sidelines, though he managed to return in time for the first match of the next season.

He remained a constant in Nathan Buckley’s side for the next two years, and only lost his place as youngsters the ilk of Brayden Maynard and Josh Smith began to assert themselves last season.

Upon his retirement, his captain Scott Pendlebury paid him the ultimate compliment.

“Ten or twelve years ago, if I wrote a letter to myself about the player I wanted to be seen as, it would have been as ‘Tooves’,” Pendlebury told the playing group.

“I’m glad it’s been you here with me the whole way, Tooves. I’m very privileged.”

As a football club, we have been very privileged to watch Toovey, too. And as a Life Member, we’re very proud to call him our own.

Alan Toovey
Jumper numbers: No. 41 (2006), No. 34 (2007-2016)
Drafted: Pick No. 2 2005 Rookie Draft
Debut: Collingwood v Richmond, Round 3 2007 at the MCG
Last game: Collingwood v Port Adelaide, Round 11 2016 at the MCG
Games: 159
Goals: 9
Finals: 13
Honours: Collingwood premiership side 2010; Collingwood pre-season premiership side 2011; Darren Millane Perpetual Memorial Trophy 2012 (Best Clubman); Collingwood Life Member 2016