In Jim Main's series, 'Swan Songs', on great players from the past, this week he talks to Bernard Toohey...
Born: February 18, 1963
Played: 1986-91
Games: 129
Goals: 76

Although former Swan defender Bernard Toohey lives halfway between Melbourne and Sydney and finds it difficult to get to matches, absence only makes his heart grow fonder for the red and white.

Despite also playing for Geelong and the Western Bulldogs, he is very much a Swans fan and keeps a close eye on the Club’s fortunes.

Toohey, as hard as teak in his playing days, has lived in the Albury-Wodonga region for most of his life and currently has a role as an assistant coach with the Murray Bushranger Under 15s in what is known as the V-Line Cup competition.

He likes to think he could produce a couple of youngsters for the Swans, but is realistic enough to know that the draft and the ever-increasing presence of the Greater Western Sydney club makes it difficult.

“We have a very exciting young group,” he said. “I am sure some of them will go on to play in the AFL, but there’s a lot of development ahead of them.”

Toohey played 94 games with the Cats from 1981-85 after being recruited from Barooga, but then was part of the massive Swans’ recruiting drive initiated in the Dr Geoffrey Edelsten regime.

He was one of three players, with Greg Williams and David Bolton, who crossed to the Swans from Geelong in 1986, along with Melbourne’s Gerard Healy and several others.

Toohey already won himself a reputation as a hard-hitting defender who could pinch-hit on the forward line and played a big part in the Swans reaching the 1986-87 finals.

Unfortunately, the Swans were bundled out in straight sets in both series and, from there, the club spiralled downwards. Financial restraints meant that the Swans struggled to retain their star players and, along with Williams, Toohey left at the end of the 1991 season.

While Williams joined Carlton, Toohey crossed to the Bulldogs, partly because another former Swan in Glenn Coleman (61 games from 1986-89) was already at the Western Oval.

Toohey explained: “The Swans did not offer me a contract for 1992, so I thought it best to make a move. Daughter Jemma was just about to start school and although it was a wrench to leave Sydney, I had to look after my family.

“My years with the Swans were immensely enjoyable and it was just a pity we could not have gone further in those two finals seasons.”

The Swans remained competitive in finishing seventh in both the 1988 and 1989 seasons, with Toohey used to plug holes at either end of the ground.

He was so successful in his handful of games on the forward line that he topped the club goalkicking in 1989, with 27. A tremendous overhead mark for his height (188cm), Toohey also had rival forwards worrying about his physical presence. When the Swan in the number 15 guernsey attacked the ball, it meant self-preservation for the opposition.

Toohey retired from AFL football at the end of the 1993 season after two years and 40 games with the Bulldogs and then returned to his beloved Riverina with wife Kate to raise Jemma (now 23), Amelia (21) and Kylie (18).

He played with several country clubs, including the Wodonga Raiders, and finished his career where it all started, winning a premiership medallion with Barooga in 1997.

“I played at full-forward and didn’t leave the goal square,” he joked. “I then gave it away to concentrate on my road and car park marking business.”

And, of course, to follow the Swans and help develop emerging football talent.