Walls rode VFL's tough transition to national league

West Australian

15-05-2025

Robert Walls personified the glory and the hard yards as the suburban VFL evolved into the national AFL.
As a player, coach and commentator, Walls was at the league's coalface from 1967 until well into the 2000s.
He was a premiership player and coach at Carlton, the last mentor at Fitzroy with a winning record and experienced first-hand the pains of national expansion at Brisbane.
After his coaching career ended with an unhappy tenure at Richmond, Walls became a respected commentator - and always with the forthright and fierce demeanour that had marked his lengthy tenure inside the game.
Walls, who had been undergoing treatment for cancer, has died at the age of 74.
Thanks to his mother, Walls grew up an Essendon supporter.
But that changed immediately once the Blues recruited him and true to his lengthy Carlton involvement, Walls and the Bombers were often bitter rivals.
A wiry and tough centre half-forward, Walls played 259 games for the Blues and Fitzroy through to 1980, kicking 444 goals.
He was a three-time premiership player at Carlton, including kicking six goals in the 1972 grand-final win over Richmond.
Asked in a 2012 interview with Fox Footy if he was a dirty player, Walls bluntly replied "yes".
After one incident in a game against St Kilda, Walls heard opposition players telling each other he was not to leave the field on his feet.
"And I didn't," Walls said.
After leaving Carlton in 1978, he had eight years at Fitzroy as a player and coach, a time he said he cherished.
Walls' playing career ended in 1980 when he left Essendon's old Windy Hill ground with a knee injury.
The reception from Bombers fans as Walls went off was another marker in his long antipathy with Essendon.
Walls was still a primary school teacher when he took over as coach at Fitzroy in 1981 and led them to the finals, where they beat Essendon in an elimination final.
But by the end of 1985, the lure from Carlton was too strong and Walls left in strained circumstances.
The straight swap with David Parkin paid immediate dividends - Carlton lost the 1986 grand final to Hawthorn and beat the Hawks for the '87 flag.
But then came the infamous Battle Of Britain - the exhibition game in London after the '87 season against North Melbourne that was marred by a succession of on-field brawls.
In the rooms post-match, Walls was critical of club president John Elliott for advocating the match and the coach felt that marked the beginning of his end at Carlton.
Walls also acknowledged his time was up when the Blues sacked him in 1989, but added he could have done with more support.
"I deserved to get the sack ... the players would have had a gutful of me," he said.
Then came coaching Brisbane from 1991-95, when Walls was a key figure as the expansion club matured from the Bad News Bears in pre-fab huts at Carrara to a much more professional team at the Gabba.
Six years later, Brisbane would start their premiership three-peat.
"I could write a book about it ... it was tough," he said.
"Having said that, it was five of the most satisfying years of my footy career."
Walls's tenure was also marked by Nathan Buckley's playing debut before he inevitably went to Collingwood and the infamous Shane Strempel story.
Years after their time at Brisbane, a documentary told the story of how Walls had ordered Strempel to box against multiple teammates at training as a disciplinary measure.
Walls claimed he was set up in the documentary, adding: "I never lost a second's sleep over that".
Another straight coaching swap, this time with John Northey, took Walls to an unhappy time at Richmond when the Tigers were notorious for eating coaches alive.
"I shouldn't have taken the job," he said.
Walls was sacked during the 1997 season after 347 games as a coach - 18th all-time in the AFL.
His lengthy commentary career then gave him something in the game that coaching never did - enjoyment.
"I never really enjoyed coaching ... it was always the stress, the pressure, the strain," he said.
"I didn't give myself the chance to relax and I regret that."
Walls had a much-publicised TV spat with then-Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy, which had its origins in their fierce rivalry when Sheedy played for Richmond.
Years later, Walls admitted to a grudging respect for his fellow old warhorse.
Walls was inducted into the Australian Football Hall Of Fame in 2006 - his wife Erin attended the function, only months before she died of cancer. They had three children.
Walls was inducted into Carlton's hall of fame in 1990 and elevated to legend status at the Blues in 2011.