IT’S been a long fortnight for the two football families of South Australia and on Wednesday the AFL world convened to remember Phil Walsh as a “genius” tactician who took every opportunity to make the game better.
Old teammates, colleagues, friends - they all came to remember a man who had, for 32 years, impacted seven clubs and countless players.
Close friend Susan Watt spoke of his life away from football, from a fiercely competitive youngest of seven children in Hamilton to the graduate of Japanese linguistics who married his wife Meredith in a civil ceremony in Brisbane, and then went to training with the Bears later that day.
Mrs Watt warned the young footballers assembled in the room from following their old mentor’s lead on marriage ceremonies.
We learned the love he had for surfing, for chocolate, for lollies, for red wine and, later, green tea.
For a person regarded as complex and intense by many in football land, he was clearly a simple man in private – a family man – who loved the time spent away from the game with his wife, his children, friends, and travelling the world.
Ken Hinkley and Garry Hocking joined other Port Adelaide staff and officials at the Phil Walsh memorial [pic: afc.com.au]
A genius who finally achieved his dream
Mark Williams and his senior assistant Phil Walsh were the yin-and-yang of Port Adelaide for the best part of 10 seasons at Alberton, and together built the Power into a force of the AFL – reaping three minor premierships, two grand final appearances and the 2004 flag during that time.
Together they played at Collingwood and the Bears.
While the duo parted ways in 2009 when Walsh pursued new opportunities at West Coast, Williams praised his old assistant - entirely in the second-person - for his football brain.
The tactics, the thinking, the reflection on the sport and the direction it would go were traits of a man before his time in the AFL.
Former Power players and current Swans coaches Stuart Dew and Josh Francou arrive at the Memorial [pic: Getty]
These were the qualities that provided Williams an invaluable weapon in his strategic arsenal during his time at the Power, the same West Coast used to rebuild as a strong, competitive team in 2011, and what would be employed to vault Port Adelaide to within a whisper of a grand final in 2014.
Williams described a “dead-set genius” who introduced analytical concepts that would withstand the test of time as part of game’s strategic fabric.
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He said the lesson from Walsh’s life was for everyone to be driven and passionate about the pursuit and enjoyment of their dreams.
“The things you instigated and brought into the football world will remain forever,” Williams said in a videoed eulogy.
“You talked goal sources before anyone did, before Champion Data did.
“Goals that were scored from stoppage, from mid turnover, from back transition, kick-ins … you were the one that brought that up.
“You had statistical data on every team that you could bring out to us on Monday and show what each team was doing, you encouraged the club to spend most of our money on servers, and we had so much information with regard to video analysis, we could look at why a team was best in a certain area, what they did off turnover, we would sit and watch for hours and hours and investigate.
“You instigated all that stuff.
“Everyone believed in you, and everyone’s learned so much from you.”
They are the same qualities that landed him the job at the Crows, along with his clear, strategic and visionary philosophy that first hooked Mark Ricciuto with the belief that Walsh was the right fit as Adelaide’s new senior coach.
Having been labelled a career assistant until 2015, Walsh was given the chance to helm a club in his own right by the Crows this year.
As close friend and former Port Adelaide football manager Rob Snowdon revealed in a closing tribute, it was something Walsh and those who knew him best, were grateful for.
Walsh had “ticked boxes” throughout his life, having played VFL and AFL football at three clubs, including becoming the inaugural club champion for the Bears in 1987, becoming part of the AFL coaching system and seeing his students win a flag in 2004.
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“Phil talked about seeing “beauty and frustration” and “masterpieces to be created”,” Snowdon said, drawing on one of Walsh’s final press conferences where he spoke of his love of Van Gogh.
“We had no idea what he was talking about [but] we suspect it was a premiership over here [at the Crows] – so keep going hard at it," he said to the Crows' playing group.
“Walshy could nearly tick all the boxes, he had a very fulfilled life.
“He really wanted to be a senior coach, we’d talk about it, he was passionate, he wanted to do it … but no one ever asked him.
“[To Mark Ricciuto], thanks for asking him.”
Walsh's former Power prodigies, current Tigers coach Damien Hardwick and Hawks defender Shaun Burgoyne attended the memorial [pic: Getty]
Get on with it
The celebratory memorial ended with the Port and Crows playing groups forming a guard of honour for the Walsh family to depart.
As players from both sides – their black suits broken by colourful club ties – stood opposed in the guard for that brief minute, the closing words of Snowdon would have started to grow in meaning.
Walsh loved football, and hated a fuss; the attention being given to him wouldn’t have washed well.
He would prefer any tribute to him to be on-field.
A tough, hard, brutal, aggressive, passionate and unrelenting tribute.
The tribute that only a Showdown between two fierce rivals can produce.
Port Adelaide and the Adelaide Crows will unite once more before Sunday’s 39th Showdown.
Supporters of both sides will converge on the Adelaide Oval decked in their colours, they will chant, they will cheer, and they will do so with a muted intensity, such has been the empathic nature of relations between the two clubs for the past fortnight.
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Travis Boak and Taylor Walker will shake hands – they’ve shouldered the burdens of ensuring team unity for the past two weeks.
Old stalwarts will march into a theatre they know well, new soldiers will make their first Showdown appearances.
And when that first siren goes and the leather hits the deck for the first time, old battlelines will come into sharp relief.
Phil Walsh’s passing may have generated greater respect between the fans of both clubs, but that will, if anything, serve to heighten the rivalry in his honour.
“Phil would be watching over this and going ‘What? What’s all this fuss about? This isn’t me,” said Snowdon.
“He’d be going to Travis and Tex and all you young fellers and having that ‘man talk’ about now, saying ‘Come on, thanks very much, get ready, go bash the hell out of each other this weekend.’
“Make it what you want it to be, and keep going.”
Port Adelaide and the Adelaide Crows will play in Showdown XXXIX before a sell-out crowd on Sunday 19 July at 2:50pm.
MEDAL: Phil Walsh Medal to be presented in Showdown
Hundreds of mourners attended the Walsh memorial [pic: afc.com.au]
