It's just a tragedy: Walsh lauded a decade after death

Perth Now

12 hours ago

A decade ago, Adelaide captain Taylor Walker reluctantly answered his phone at 4.45am.
"Phil's been murdered," Walker was told by the Crows' chief executive Andrew Fagan.
Patrick Dangerfield answered a knock on his Adelaide door at 5.30am.
"Phil's dead," Dangerfield, then a star Crow, was told by the club's football manager David Noble.
"For that day and for the next few days I didn't cry," Dangerfield has said.
"It was just total and utter disbelief ... you couldn't comprehend it."
Ten years later, the AFL cohort in Adelaide are treading a fine line around Phil Walsh, who was stabbed to death by his son Cy on July 3, 2015.
How best to acknowledge Walsh without creating further pain for his family? No-one quite knows.
Just as no-one quite knew 10 years ago how to handle the death of the 55-year-old who was in the midst of his first season as the Crows' head coach.
"It was a big washing machine for the next week," Walker has said of the emotional fall-out.
Walsh had joined the Crows from arch rivals Port Adelaide, where in 2014 he was an assistant coach under Ken Hinkley.
"His knowledge and his love of the game was real," Hinkley said this week.
"It's just a tragedy, obviously everyone knows that, with what happened.
"But there's a time when you reflect on the knowledge and the brilliance of his mind, which was amazing from a football sense."
Walsh's renowned intensity left an imprint on all.
"His game-day stuff, like his intensity and his willingness to try and win everything and make sure his team was so prepared," Hinkley said.
"The players who would have played under Phil would say there was no stone unturned when it came to being ready to play football.
"His footy knowledge ... no-one better."
As a player, Walsh featured in 122 VFL/AFL games for Richmond, Collingwood and Brisbane from 1983-1990.
In 2014 under Hinkley, Walsh was in his second stint as a Power assistant - he also held the role from 1999-2008.
Walsh filled the same job at West Coast from 2009-13 before returning to South Australia.
When Adelaide sacked Brenton Sanderson as coach in September 2014, the Crows' powerbroker and playing great Mark Ricciuto sought out Walsh.
"I feel like I have been robbed," Ricciuto wrote in an open letter published five days after Walsh's death.
"In fact, we have all been robbed. (Walsh's wife) Meredith, (daughter) Quinn and the family and their friends, I'm sure, are all feeling the same.
"Why robbed? Because I think the Phil Walsh story was going to end as a fairytale. I could see him one day being a premiership coach ... and I do not say it lightly."
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