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Geelong star Zach Tuohy has slammed the treatment received by fellow Irishman Conor McKenna, following his positive test for coronavirus.
Geelong's Irish defender Zach Tuohy has leapt to the defence of fellow countryman Conor McKenna and claimed the reaction to his positive COVID-19 test was "outrageous".
McKenna was handed a one-game ban last month by the AFL for breaching biosecurity protocols which led to the postponement of Essendon's clash with Melbourne.
However, the Bombers defender was given permission to leave quarantine early after subsequent tests came back negative - raising the possibility of a potentially false positive test.
Tuohy believes the 24-year-old was unfairly hung out to dry by sections of the media.
"It was outrageous, absolutely outrageous, a total farce," said Tuohy, speaking on the Gaelic Players' Association podcast in Ireland.
"He was guilty by media, he did nothing wrong, as was painted as some kind of idiot who didn't care about the AFL, and was going to jeopardise the game.
"There are 800 players in the league, however many staff in each of those clubs as well, so you have way over 1,000 people.
"You can't keep tabs on them all, it's only a matter of time before a player returns a positive test, and when it happens, you don't just get to go the media and call them whatever you want.
"As it happened, it was clerical error, a breakdown in communications somewhere.
"To be fair, some media have apologised, but it was handled terribly, absolutely terribly.
"So much of the media are just vultures, absolute vultures, and they'd rather be first than right. I'd like to give you some names, but it probably wouldn't be a good career move."
Former Carlton star Tuohy also claimed by going public with the results of McKenna's initial test, the AFL were guilty of jumping the gun over COVID-19.
"It was absolutely disgraceful the way he was treated," he said.
"Someone is going to get it, it's unavoidable, especially given there's a spike in some states.
"But of course it's just breeding anxiety, when there's a lot of anxiety around."
