After the under 18s season finished, Roughead helped his local team, Leongatha, win the WGLFL premiership.

[citation needed] Roughead is friends with Australian basketball players Joe Ingles and Patty Mills.

During his career, Roughhead has shown that he has the tremendous athletic capability with a huge leap and clean marking hands.

In 2008, he played in his first AFL Grand Final, despite his struggles to collect the ball at times, Roughead finished the match with a respectable 2 goals against Geelong.

In 2011, Roughhead played in a ruck position as well as the forward line due to Hawthorn's injury list.

He spent the majority of the 2012 AFL season sharing the ruck duties with David Hale (footballer).

In 2013, Roughead was awarded the Coleman Medal for being the leading goalkicker after kicking 68 goals at the completion of the home and away season.

[19] In December, after 8 months of immunotherapy, Roughead revealed on the Hawthorn website that he was cancer-free, and had been given the all-clear to return to football.