CTV > Alan Toovey interviewThis Saturday’s regional challenge match in Western Australia takes on added significance for young Magpie Alan Toovey, who grew up nearby and played much of his junior football in the region.
Toovey hails from Frankland in country WA, about an hour-and-a-half north of Albany, where Collingwood will play West Coast this Saturday afternoon at the appropriately named Collingwood Park.
“My farm which I grew up on is not that far, about an hour and a half, from Albany, all my junior footy I used to play in Albany, so it will be good going back down near home and playing a bit of footy there,” Toovey told CTV at the Lexus Centre on Thursday.
The 20–year-old impressed by playing 10 games in his first year on the senior list in 2007, and is keen to build on that and cement a permanent place in the side in 2008, particularly after his stellar debut against Richmond in round three when he booted three goals while negating dangerous Tiger Brett Deledio.
“I was fairly happy last year. This year I want to get a spot in the senior team and keep it for the whole year, and make sure I’m in the team every week playing good footy.
“I’ll probably play half back, pushing up on forwards that play up the ground a fair bit, so if someone plays as a forward and they go up to the stoppages I can go with them, and get in and get a bit of the footy.
“Or, playing half back and through the middle, maybe even sneak into the forward line and kick a goal every now and again hopefully, but I just want to play every game this season, that’s what I hope to do.”
Having narrowly missed out on being selected for Collingwood’s pre-season cup match against Adelaide in Dubai a fortnight ago, Toovey can’t wait to finally get out there and take on some opposition after a long and productive pre-season campaign.
“I’ve only been playing intra-club scratch matches so far this pre-season so it will be good to get out there and ‘hit to hurt’ I suppose, as Mick puts it, lay some tackles and get into some real footy.”
With the Magpies having now been back into training in Melbourne for a week-and-a-half after the three week training camp and practice match in South Africa and Dubai, Toovey said the boys are feeling fit and fresh after initially easing back into it.
“After being away for so long and long flights, the first couple of sessions we had to ease into it a bit, it wasn’t flat out, to get all the jet lag and stiffness out of all the bodies.
“This week at training’s been really good, voice has been right up, everyone’s excited to be playing footy back at home now, so it’s been pretty good.”
Like many of his teammates, Toovey found South Africa a confronting and fascinating place, and is grateful for the opportunity to have mixed intense training with experiencing a very foreign land.
“It was pretty surprising, just things that you take for granted like having power all the time, having blackouts all the time, things like that you’re not used to, it kind of opens your eyes to the fact we’re pretty lucky over here... compared to a lot of people elsewhere.
“It put things into perspective for me, seeing how other people live and it was good to experience a lot of new things, seeing different animals, culture and countryside.”
