Micro Noises 94: Vale Phil Walsh
Vale Phil Walsh
Friday mornings are normally a fun time for me. As part of my role at australianfootball.com, I get to look back at the past week in footy and make light of some of the moments of the previous round in the Micro Noises column. It's not always easy. Sometimes it's hard to find the weird and wonderful from nine games of footy. Players and coaches don't go out of their way to provide comedy. Sometimes you're just not in the mood. Family life provides us with challenges each and every day and that can make it hard to switch your mind to 'silly' mode.
But footy almost always helps us find a way. As a lover all things 'letters and numbers', once I start poring over the scores, the stats and the players' names, it doesn't take me long to spot a combination of numbers that makes a silly, vaguely relevant postcode, or an arrangement of letters that allow me to make some sort of absurd - and hopefully funny - comment about a coach, a player, a game, or just footy in general.
Today, it is especially hard - too hard - to make merry about our great game. The news of the sudden and violent death of Adelaide coach Phil Walsh has left us all numb, paralysed. It is news almost impossible to fathom; too hard to process. How can this man - who for many footy fans had 'flown under the radar' since his playing days ended in 1990, and who we were just getting to know and love as coach of the Crows - be gone?
When Walsh was appointed Adelaide's coach last November, after the shock sacking of Brenton Sanderson, I had to rack my brains to recall my knowledge of him in his playing days. I remembered him starting at Collingwood, moving to Richmond and finishing at Brisbane. And I remembered him as a player of great potential who didn't quite have the long career I thought he would. As with many others, his career was cruelled by injury.
But what my strange mind recalled most clearly was something that revolved around his surname and the year 1984. After a scintillating start to his career at the Pies in 1983, Walsh 'defected' to Richmond. My clear memory of when the Tigers played Collingwood in round eight, 1984, in front of a big crowd at the 'G, is Walsh being booed by Magpie fans on each of the 22 occasions he took control of the ball. Nothing unusual in that. Booing a player that's flown the coop when they play their first match against the old team has long been part of footy's pantomime.
What bemused me, though, was that he wasn't the only player of that name being booed by 'his own'. Around that same time, another Walsh - Essendon's Kevin - was copping criticism from Bomber fans frustrated by a 19-year premiership drought. Kevin Walsh's gangly appearance and running style made him an easy target for fans when things went wrong. But coach Sheedy stuck with him and he was embraced by the faithful as part of the 1984-85 premiership sides.
Being one of two Walshes, both booed by their own - that was my lasting memory of Phil, until he bobbed up as Adelaide's senior coach. It didn't take long for him to create new impressions on my mind, though, once he took over. His intensity at first made him appear scary. In one early post-match interview in the rooms I thought the interviewer was going to disintegrate before him, such was the ferocity of his glare.
Yet there was a sense of humour behind that stare. He soon showed that he was a man capable of laughing at others, at the game, and at himself. His comment - “For a bogan from Hamilton like myself, I could actually see beauty in that frustration" - referring to seeing Van Gogh's Sunflowers - recalled some of Mick Malthouse's more unusual post-match pressers, and revealed Walsh to be a man of deep philosophy and humour. My immediate thought after hearing Walsh's comments that night were, "I love this guy! Footy needs to see more of him and more characters like him."
And all too soon we have lost him.
As much as I'd like to think Phil Walsh might have appreciated my take on the quirks the game throws up, I am in no mood - and few us are - to make fun of footy's numbers and letters today. In time, we will again. For now, it's time to mourn and reflect.
But Micro Noises is all about numbers and letters, so I feel duty bound to provide a few. Here are a few facts about Phil Walsh.
* He was one of 26 players with the surname Walsh to have played at VFL/AFL level.
* Of those 26, he was the only one to play for three different clubs.
* Walsh played 122 V/AFL games, the fifth-most of all Walshes, behind Kevin (162 games for Essendon), Wayne (151, Richmond and South Melbourne), Peter (139, Melbourne, Port Adelaide) and Brian (131, St Kilda).
* Walsh was one of 22 players to end their career on 122 matches. Five of those - John Harris, Craig Kelly, Phil Manassa, Geoff Miles and Ron Reeves - also played for Collingwood, and two - Jack Crane and Bert Edwards - played for Richmond.
* His total of 41 VFL/AFL goals was second only to Carlton's Brian (who kicked 211) amongst the Walshes. 45 other players ended their careers with a total of 41 goals.
* Walsh's AFL coaching career will end with a total of 12 games. Three others - Ted Rowell (Collingwood, 1907-08), Sam Gravenall (Essendon, 1922) and Mick Erwin (Collingwood - 1982) - finished with the same figure.
* Long before the Rising Star award was initiated, Walsh was bestowed the title 'Recruit of the Year' in 1983.
* He won the Brisbane Bears' inaugural best and fairest award in 1987.
Those are but a few mere facts about a man that made a mark in footy as a player and as an assistant coach, and was already making a mark as a senior coach. Sadly, the numbers end there. The football community mourns the loss of a fine man.
Rest In Peace
Phillip Walsh
1960 - 2015
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Phil Walsh's player profile can be found here.
Micro Noises is Andrew Gigacz's regular, quirky look at all things footy. The name Micro Noises is an anagram of Enrico Misso, who played one game for St Kilda in 1985. He remains the only Enrico and the only Misso to have played footy at the highest level.
Comments
Adam Cardosi 3 July 2015
Well said Gigs, a fitting tribute.
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