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.
Carlton icon Robert Walls (pictured) even shocked his own family by making sure he got the final word as he was farewelled at the MCG on Thursday
A host of big names from the AFL were on hand to mark the incredible contribution Walls made to the game and the lives of many footballers
Current Carlton coach Michael Voss (left) and Collingwood great Nathan Buckley (right) were among the mourners
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.
Blues legend Stephen Kernahan (pictured) joined around 600 people at the MCG’s members’ dining room to pay his respects after Walls coached him to grand final glory in 1987
Pictured: Footy great turned TV and radio star Rex Hunt attending the service
Bruce ‘The Flying Doormat’ Doull – who played alongside Walls – made a rare public appearance at the ‘G
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.
Michael McLean broke down during his speech honouring Walls
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.
‘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.’
