Hovey played in the 1947 Shepparton Boys Football Club's Central Goulburn Valley Football League premiership team as a 15-year-old[1][2] before moving to Geelong to play in the Geelong Under-19's side in 1948.

[4] Hovey, who finished equal seventh in the 1959 Brownlow Medal, was captain of Geelong in 1960, his final season.

[4][5] Hovey was forced to retire six games into the 1960 VFL season due to an ongoing knee injury.

[6] Two of his brothers, Ced and Jim, also played league football for Geelong.

This Australian rules football biography of a person born in the 1930s is a stub.