LAST UPDATE | 21 Jul 2020

IRISH AFL STAR Zach Tuohy says the treatment of Conor McKenna in relation to his experience with a Covid-19 controversy was “a total farce.”

McKenna was at the centre of a storm in Australia recently after he became the first AFL player to test positive for Covid-19.

He later tested negative for Covid-19 on three occasions and sat out one AFL game before returning to line out for his club Essendon in a victory over North Melbourne earlier this month. McKenna also suffered a broken finger in that game.

The Tyrone native recently said he still doesn’t know how or if he had the virus, and served a one-match suspension for breaching Covid-19 protocols.

Speaking on the GPA’s podcast ‘The Players’ Voice’ about how McKenna was treated during the coverage of this story, Tuohy said:

“Outrageous. Absolutely outrageous, it was a total farce.

He was guilty by media. It was a farce and he did nothing wrong. He was painted as some kind of idiot who didn’t care about the AFL and was going to jeopardise the game.

“There’s 800 players in the league and however many staff in each of those clubs as well. So there’s way over 1,000 people. You can’t keep tabs on them all, there’s only a matter of time before a player returns a positive test.

“And when it happens, you don’t get to just go in the media and call them whatever you want. Now, as it turns out, Conor was a negative and it was a clerical error or a breakdown in communications somewhere, which is very little consolation to a bloke who’s just had his name dragged through the mud publicly.”

Zach Tuohy says it's brilliant to be playing matches again. AAP / PA Images AAP / PA Images / PA Images

Commenting on how people spoke about McKenna on social media, Tuohy added:

“I read some of the tweets that were sent to him and it’s nonsense. It’s ridiculous. Now to be fair, some of the media have apologised, but again, some have doubled down and it was just handled absolutely terribly. So much of the media are just vultures and all they want is a bad news story.

“They’d rather be first than be right and there’s too many of those. I’d bloody love to give you names but it probably wouldn’t be a good career move.”

Tuohy also said that the facts didn’t matter to many people when commenting on McKenna’s situation.

“They [the facts] didn’t matter at all,” he added.

“Nobody made sure about what the results actually said. And even if he had been positive, that doesn’t mean he didn’t care. It certainly wouldn’t mean he did it on purpose.

There are so many totally legitimate ways to catch this bloody virus. You don’t just get to attribute malice when an accident will do. They just really jumped the gun and it was really disgraceful.”

Laois native Tuohy enjoyed an impresive return to AFL action last month as he featured in a huge victory over Hawthorn with his side the Geelong Cats.

He says his team has been staying at a hotel for the past 17 days and they are likely to remain there for the rest of the season.

“As soon as we got back playing, it just struck me how much I missed it,” he remarked about getting back to playing matches again.

“My body is the best it’s felt in the last couple of years which is also a big plus right now. I feel like I’m playing well so the actual on-field side of the game, I couldn’t be enjoying it anymore than I am right now.”

You can listen to the full interview here

The Players Voice / SoundCloud

The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!