Latest news with #RobertWalls
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Footy icon Robert Walls sends a message from beyond the grave that even shocked his own family as a who's who of the AFL mourn him at memorial service
Robert Walls, one of the most versatile football people in VFL/ AFL history, has been remembered as a devoted family man and an inspiring teacher. Known for being a star player, a premiership-winning coach and a fearless media performer across more than 40 years, Walls's biggest impact arguably came at home. The Australian Football Hall Of Fame member was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and died, aged 74, on May 15, after using Victoria's assisted dying laws to end his life. Walls died 19 years after his beloved wife Erin - the mother to his children Rebecca, David and Daniel - lost her own battle with cancer. He was buried next to Erin, with one of his eight grandchildren, Ella, also nearby. More than 600 mourners, a large percentage of them Australian football royalty, paid their respects to Walls in a moving service held in the MCG members' dining room on Thursday. Eight speakers across almost 90 minutes covered his influence on family, playing, coaching and commentary, with love, humour and affection. But it was Walls who had the final word, as MC Stephen Gough read out a four-minute message the Carlton icon had penned before his death for the specific purpose of being read out at his funeral. Not even any of his family knew a note from beyond the grave was coming. 'I want you to remember the good times - of which there were plenty,' Walls, who was also a respected classroom teacher, had written. 'I indeed have had a fortunate life.' Walls signed off with: 'Enough from me; goodbye, best wishes and be kind to each other, Wallsy'. Often his 'own toughest critic', Walls would regularly pass on his match payments at Carlton to his older sister Annette, who travelled with him to a game, if he felt he hadn't played well. But the 'boy from Brunswick' had lots of good days, playing in Carlton's 1968, '70 and '72 premiership teams during a 218-game career at the Blues. Walls finished his decorated playing career at Fitzroy, where he also began his illustrious coaching journey in 1981. Rebecca, his eldest daughter, described Walls as a caring and loving father. 'I know a lot of you here see dad as a tough, hard man, but really he was a big softie, who was a wonderful girl dad,' she said. Gough covered Walls's Carlton days, first as a player and then as a coach when he led the club to the 1987 premiership. Scott Clayton, who has become a veteran list manager, played under Walls at Fitzroy, and then worked with him at the Brisbane Bears. 'Along with family, Robert's had the greatest influence on my life,' Clayton said. Michael McLean told of Walls showing faith in him at the Bears, after being axed by Footscray. Nicknamed 'Magic', McLean broke down at the end of his speech. Walls' son Daniel spoke about his father at the emotional service 'He never called me 'Magic', he always called me Mick,' he said through tears. 'Then he got out of his sick bed, came up and inducted me in the (Brisbane Lions) Hall of Fame (in 2023), and introduced me as 'Magic'.' Speakers were given a five-minute warning, in reference to the countdown clock the Ten Network used for their football coverage between 2002-11. Walls was no fan of the warning that kept viewers, and even commentators, in suspense late in matches. David Barham, who produced Ten's coverage, called Walls the leader of their team who 'set the standard for expert commentators'. Barham recalled Walls's spray to Meatloaf before the American star's infamous, trainwreck of a performance at the 2011 AFL grand final. Word got around the MCG that Meatloaf would cancel his performance due to poor weather, so Walls decided to take aim at him live on-air. '... (It) finished with my personal favourite: 'Just tell the Big Loaf, to harden up and get out there,' Barham said.
ABC News
22-05-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
AFL giant Robert Walls remembered at moving MCG funeral service
Robert Walls, one of the most prominent figures in VFL/AFL history, has been remembered as a devoted family man and an inspiring teacher. Known for being a star player, premiership-winning coach and fearless media performer across more than 40 years, Walls's most significant impact came at home. The Australian Football Hall Of Fame member was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and died aged 74 on May 15 after using Victoria's assisted dying laws to end his life. Walls died 19 years after his beloved wife Erin — the mother to his children Rebecca, David and Daniel — lost her battle with cancer. He was buried next to Erin, with one of his eight grandchildren, Ella, also nearby. More than 600 mourners, a large percentage of them Australian football royalty, paid their respects to Walls in a moving service held in the MCG members' dining room on Thursday. Eight speakers across almost 90 minutes covered his influence on family, playing, coaching and commentary, with love, humour and affection. But it was Walls who had the final word. MC Stephen Gough read out a four-minute message the Carlton icon had penned before his death for the specific purpose of being read out at his funeral. Not even any of his family knew the note was coming. "I want you to remember the good times — of which there were plenty," Walls, who was also a respected classroom teacher, had written. "I indeed have had a fortunate life." Walls signed off with: "Enough from me; goodbye, best wishes and be kind to each other, Wallsy". Often his "own toughest critic", Walls would regularly pass on his match payments at Carlton to his older sister Annette, if he felt he had not played well. But the "boy from Brunswick" had lots of good days, playing in Carlton's 1968, 1970 and 1972 premiership teams during a 218-match career at the Blues. Walls finished his decorated playing career at Fitzroy, where he also began his illustrious coaching journey in 1981. Rebecca, his eldest daughter, described Walls as a caring and loving father. "I know a lot of you here see dad as a tough, hard man, but really he was a big softie, who was a wonderful girl dad," she said. Gough covered Walls's Carlton days, first as a player and then as a coach when he led the club to the 1987 premiership. Scott Clayton, who has become a veteran list manager, played under Walls at Fitzroy, and then worked with him at the Brisbane Bears. "Along with family, Robert has had the greatest influence on my life," Clayton said. Michael McLean told of Walls showing faith in him at the Bears after being axed by Footscray. Nicknamed 'Magic', McLean broke down at the end of his speech. "He never called me 'Magic', he always called me Mick," he said through tears. "Then he got out of his sick bed, came up and inducted me in the (Brisbane Lions) Hall of Fame (in 2023), and introduced me as 'Magic'." Speakers were given a five-minute warning, in reference to the countdown clock the Ten Network used for their football coverage between 2002-11. Walls was no fan of the warning that kept viewers, and even commentators, in suspense late in matches. David Barham, who produced Ten's coverage, called Walls the leader of their team who "set the standard for expert commentators". Barham recalled Walls's criticism of Meatloaf before the American star's infamous performance at the 2011 AFL grand final. Word spread at the MCG Meatloaf would cancel his performance due to poor weather, so Walls decided to take aim at him live on-air. "Just tell the Big Loaf to harden up and get out there," Barham recounted Walls saying at the time. "Suffice to say, had it not been for Wallsy, we may not have the Meatloaf memory, something we have all enjoyed talking about for more than a decade." AAP
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
A week of grief is a reminder to reflect on the magnificent triviality of sport
The great Scottish newspaper writer Hugh McIlvanney often spoke of 'the magnificent triviality of sport.' He wrote beautifully on so many things, but especially boxing and horseracing, sports where death is always at your elbow. He saw boxers die in the ring and jockeys die at the track, and he wrote about them with the right mix of detachment, precision and compassion. Those columns were thankfully rare. Underpinning everything else he wrote was the belief – that agreement between writer and reader – that the great joy of sport lies in its insignificance. We obsess over it, analyse it, and argue about it, but ultimately, it really doesn't matter. Advertisement The Australian football industry was an angry one last week. Footy seemed to lurch from one 'crisis' to another. The umpiring, the mixed media messaging and the competence of the AFL chair, the CEO and the head of football were all called into question. The tone was urgent, the leaks were constant, and the list of grievances was long. Related: Carlton, Fitzroy and Brisbane great Robert Walls did it his way – in life and in death | Jonathan Horn That eased somewhat when we learned that Robert Walls had died aged 74. It was a reminder that there is more to football than the day-to-day folderal, and that this sport has a rich history. Listening to Walls' friends speak and reading what they wrote about him, several things shone through. One was the full sporting life he'd lived – between amateur and professional, between wealthy and poor, between respect and fear, between success and high farce. The other was the way he faced death. 'No 'woe is me' at all,' he told Mark Robinson last year. 'My sister's had cancer, her husband had cancer, their little boy when he was four had cancer and lost his arm. My wife passed away at 55. Shit, I'm in my 70s, I've got nothing to complain about, nothing at all.' Advertisement There are stories like that all around us. They are not sporting stories. It took two decades and 50 failed attempts before voluntary assisted dying was introduced in Australia. It goes right to the heart of who we are as autonomous individuals and as a society. Walls was a footballer, a coach and a commentator, and therefore his death was news. His career, his premierships, his sprays, his sackings – they were McIlvanney's magnificent trivialities. This was different. This mattered. 'In the movies you think of someone on death row dragging their feet,' Walls' son David said. 'But he skipped down the hallway like he was running through the banner.' When we lose loved ones, we blink and blunder into the outside world and register our astonishment that it still carries on as before – that people are still commuting, exercising, shopping and socialising. As news of Adam Selwood's death aged 41 came through on Saturday, the Collingwood and Adelaide players were milling about in the middle of the MCG, warming up in the rain. Magpies captain Scott Pendlebury was meditating in a room underneath, doing what he calls 'a full body scan'. An hour later, the ball was bounced. Winter football had arrived. Advertisement Pies coach Craig McRae said afterwards that he didn't know what to do, or what to say. I don't think anyone did. This isn't some trite 'well it certainly puts everything in perspective,' column. It isn't a call for a 'men's mental health round', as though footy can solve every societal problem. It's pointless and irresponsible to write about Adam Selwood's life the way we wrote about Robert Walls. All we can do is afford the Selwood family the full measure of their unspeakable grief. And we can reflect on those very human moments of grace, those moments where sport is more than a triviality. We all remember different things, and we all take different meanings. I'll remember the son of the Richmond recruiting boss Chris Tolce, whose dad was a year older than the Selwood twins when he died, given the honour of officially logging the club's number one pick. Related: Former West Coast player Adam Selwood dies months after twin brother's death I'll remember Adam's younger brother, Joel – a sportsman I admired and enjoyed watching more than nearly any other I've seen – running out for a grand final carrying a former teammate's son with a rare degenerative condition. He was the most unyielding of footballers, at a peak moment of adrenalin, nerves and expectation, but I'll never forget the tenderness in which he held that little boy. Advertisement In wrapping up round 10, I could write about Bailey Dale's 49 touches, or Patrick Dangerfield's delicate tendons, or Pendlebury's calculus. I could write about Marbior Chol assessing every degree of difficulty this game can throw up – tired legs, a close finish, a tight angle, a wet ball, a choppy ground, and a 200cm frame – ambling in, gathering the ball one handed, baulking and threading a goal. But none of that matters. All that matters is that two parents have lost their twin boys in the space of a few months. All that matters is that two little boys have lost their dad, two men have lost their brother and a woman has lost her husband. There is nothing more to say. In a sport column such as this, there's probably nothing more that should be said.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
A week of grief is a reminder to reflect on the magnificent triviality of sport
The great Scottish newspaper writer Hugh McIlvanney often spoke of 'the magnificent triviality of sport.' He wrote beautifully on so many things, but especially boxing and horseracing, sports where death is always at your elbow. He saw boxers die in the ring and jockeys die at the track, and he wrote about them with the right mix of detachment, precision and compassion. Those columns were thankfully rare. Underpinning everything else he wrote was the belief – that agreement between writer and reader – that the great joy of sport lies in its insignificance. We obsess over it, analyse it, and argue about it, but ultimately, it really doesn't matter. The Australian football industry was an angry one last week. Footy seemed to lurch from one 'crisis' to another. The umpiring, the mixed media messaging and the competence of the AFL chair, the CEO and the head of football were all called into question. The tone was urgent, the leaks were constant, and the list of grievances was long. That eased somewhat when we learned that Robert Walls had died aged 74. It was a reminder that there is more to football than the day-to-day folderal, and that this sport has a rich history. Listening to Walls' friends speak and reading what they wrote about him, several things shone through. One was the full sporting life he'd lived – between amateur and professional, between wealthy and poor, between respect and fear, between success and high farce. The other was the way he faced death. 'No 'woe is me' at all,' he told Mark Robinson last year. 'My sister's had cancer, her husband had cancer, their little boy when he was four had cancer and lost his arm. My wife passed away at 55. Shit, I'm in my 70s, I've got nothing to complain about, nothing at all.' There are stories like that all around us. They are not sporting stories. It took two decades and 50 failed attempts before voluntary assisted dying was introduced in Australia. It goes right to the heart of who we are as autonomous individuals and as a society. Walls was a footballer, a coach and a commentator, and therefore his death was news. His career, his premierships, his sprays, his sackings – they were McIlvanney's magnificent trivialities. This was different. This mattered. 'In the movies you think of someone on death row dragging their feet,' Walls' son David said. 'But he skipped down the hallway like he was running through the banner.' When we lose loved ones, we blink and blunder into the outside world and register our astonishment that it still carries on as before – that people are still commuting, exercising, shopping and socialising. As news of Adam Selwood's death aged 41 came through on Saturday, the Collingwood and Adelaide players were milling about in the middle of the MCG, warming up in the rain. Magpies captain Scott Pendlebury was meditating in a room underneath, doing what he calls 'a full body scan'. An hour later, the ball was bounced. Winter football had arrived. Pies coach Craig McRae said afterwards that he didn't know what to do, or what to say. I don't think anyone did. This isn't some trite 'well it certainly puts everything in perspective,' column. It isn't a call for a 'men's mental health round', as though footy can solve every societal problem. It's pointless and irresponsible to write about Adam Selwood's life the way we wrote about Robert Walls. All we can do is afford the Selwood family the full measure of their unspeakable grief. Sign up to From the Pocket: AFL Weekly Jonathan Horn brings expert analysis on the week's biggest AFL stories after newsletter promotion And we can reflect on those very human moments of grace, those moments where sport is more than a triviality. We all remember different things, and we all take different meanings. I'll remember the son of the Richmond recruiting boss Chris Tolce, whose dad was a year older than the Selwood twins when he died, given the honour of officially logging the club's number one pick. I'll remember Adam's younger brother, Joel – a sportsman I admired and enjoyed watching more than nearly any other I've seen – running out for a grand final carrying a former teammate's son with a rare degenerative condition. He was the most unyielding of footballers, at a peak moment of adrenalin, nerves and expectation, but I'll never forget the tenderness in which he held that little boy. In wrapping up round 10, I could write about Bailey Dale's 49 touches, or Patrick Dangerfield's delicate tendons, or Pendlebury's calculus. I could write about Marbior Chol assessing every degree of difficulty this game can throw up – tired legs, a close finish, a tight angle, a wet ball, a choppy ground, and a 200cm frame – ambling in, gathering the ball one handed, baulking and threading a goal. But none of that matters. All that matters is that two parents have lost their twin boys in the space of a few months. All that matters is that two little boys have lost their dad, two men have lost their brother and a woman has lost her husband. There is nothing more to say. In a sport column such as this, there's probably nothing more that should be said.
Daily Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Telegraph
SCG hit with AFL ticket, Welcome to Country fails before Sydney Swans clash with Carlton Blues
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News. Fans at the SCG were subjected to two hiccups before the Swans' 16-point victory over Carlton got underway on Friday night. Sydney had lost four of its past five matches to slide down the AFL ladder, but responded with an 11.12 (78) to 9.8 (62) win that will ease some pressure on first-year coach Dean Cox. The AFL's Sir Doug Nicholls Round continued in Sydney, with pre-match ceremonies and a poignant tribute to Carlton great Robert Walls, who died this week. FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every match of every round in the 2025 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE in 4K, with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer. Before the opening bounce, however, fans were quick to point out the unusually small crowd that had filtered into the SCG. That was due to the ground's ticketing system failing around half an hour before the opening bounce, leaving thousands of fans stranded outside. 'The SCG feels like it's only about half full right now and that's because everyone that's (outside) actually can't get in,' Xander McGuire said on Channel 7. Watch the Welcome to Country mistake in the video player above Scores of empty seats can be seen at the SCG during the pre-match ceremony. (Photo by Phil Hillyard) 'From about 7.10pm tonight onwards, the turnstiles outside the ground actually froze up and completely broke. 'So for about 20 minutes, people trying to scan their tickets couldn't get in. 'I've spoken to security, they think the lines got to about 200 metres long at every single gate outside. 'So they reverted back to the old days, doing manual ticket checks now. 'People are literally streaming in and security are only looking at the tickets with a passing glance, hoping the tickets are completely legitimate. 'An incredible situation unfolding here at the SCG.' It was all noted by footy fans on social media. There was a moment of silence for Robert Walls before the game. (Photo by Phil Hillyard) X user Matthew Carlson tweeted: 'Oh that's why the crowd's so low. Everyone stuck outside.' Michael Green tweeted: 'They've just let everyone in. An official attendance will just be a guess.' Another fan suggested: 'Surely you delay the game for 15 mins to let the crowd in?' William Polak added: 'What a shambles at the SCG tonight.' With fans still trying to get into the ground, the pre-match ceremony commenced with an impeccable moment of silence for Walls, who chose a voluntary assisted death on Thursday following a battle with a rare and aggressive blood cancer. Uncle Lloyd Walker mixed up his sports pre-match. Photo: Fox Sports A triple premiership winner on the field with the Blues, Walls also coached the club to the 1987 flag. After the tribute to Walls, the Indigenous Round celebration began, including a cultural performance, an exchange of gifts between the two captains and a warmly received Welcome to Country from local Elder Uncle Lloyd Walker. Unfortunately, Walker mentioned the wrong sport towards the end of his speech. 'On behalf of the traditional owners of Sydney, I welcome you all today,' Walker said in part. 'I'd like to acknowledge one of our community members, Jordan Ardler, who designed the Swans jerseys tonight. 'On this special night, I'd also like pay tribute to our Indigenous NFL stars that are positive role models to our people.' Fans were quick to jump on the error when they also took to social media to comment. Charles Haig asked: 'Wait, did he just say 'NFL stars'?' Charlie Cosgrove quipped: 'Love our Indigenous NFL stars.' An account called Political Correctness is Overrated said: 'NFL gets a shout out. Awesome promotion AFL!' Another X account Nessing Around joked: 'Nearly Footy League NFL letssss gooooo.' Once the game did get underway, fans had begun to fill the stands on a damp night in Sydney. The Blues took a one-goal lead into quarter-time in an even contest, which they narrowly increased to seven points at the long break. The two teams only managed one goal apiece in a dour third term, before the Swans kicked five final-quarter majors to Carlton's two to grab a critical four points and keep Sydney in the top eight hunt. Originally published as SCG hit with ticket, Welcome to Country fails before Swans clash with Carlton
