Phillip Walsh (15 March 1960 – 3 July 2015) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er and coach. Walsh played for Collingwood, Richmond and the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Bears were a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, now known as the Brisbane Lions. Granted a Australian Football League, Victorian Football League (VFL), licence in 1986, ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL) between 1983 and 1990. Upon ending his playing career, Walsh held assistant coaching roles at

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

, West Coast and

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

before being appointed as the senior coach of the Adelaide Football Club for a three-season contract beginning in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

. On 3 July 2015, Walsh was found dead at the age of 55 in his Somerton Park home with multiple stab wounds. His son Cy was charged with his murder, and he was later found not guilty due to mental incompetence.

Playing career

Walsh played mostly as a wingman and made his VFL debut in the 1983 season with Collingwood. The following year he crossed to Richmond, where he spent three seasons with the club, playing in 40 games. He finished his career with the

and won their inaugural best and fairest award in 1987.

Coaching career

After his playing career, Walsh became the fitness co-ordinator and senior team runner at the Geelong Football Club from 1996 to 1999, before moving to the

Port Adelaide Football Club Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, Alberton, South Australia. The club's senior men's team plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), where it is nicknamed the ...

as an assistant coach in 1999. He was an assistant coach under Mark Williams in Port's 2004 premiership team. In the same year, he was awarded the AFL Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year award. He coached the team in the absence of Williams (whose father Fos had died) for one game in Round 22, 2001. In 2009, Walsh moved to West Coast as an assistant coach under John Worsfold. In 2014, he returned to

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

as an assistant coach, specialising in midfield strategy, at the

. On 7 October 2014, Walsh was appointed the senior coach at the Adelaide Football Club for three years after the sacking of Brenton Sanderson. After his death on 6 July 2015, Walsh was replaced by assistant coach Scott Camporeale as caretaker senior coach of Adelaide Football Club for the rest of the 2015 season.

Death

On 3 July 2015, Walsh was found dead in his Somerton Park home. Police were called to the house just after 2:00am, and found Walsh with multiple stab wounds. Paramedics arrived and tried to revive him, but a doctor confirmed him dead at the scene. Walsh's wife Meredith was taken to a nearby hospital for cuts to her leg. Their 26-year-old son Cy, who lived at the same home, was found by police a short time later at First Ave, Glenelg East, taken into custody and charged with murder. The Crows' next scheduled match, against

, on 5 July 2015, was cancelled with both teams awarded two premiership points, making it the only game cancelled outright in the league's history. In late September 2016, Cy Walsh was found not guilty of murder due to mental incompetence. The judge accepted psychological evidence that he was suffering from undiagnosed and untreated

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

at the time of the incident, and toxicological evidence did not indicate drug intoxication. He is subject to a lifetime psychiatric supervision order. In September 2021, he was granted unsupervised leave from the mental health facility where he is detained, Ashton House, for activities such as shopping.

Personal life

Walsh grew up in Hamilton, Victoria, and was the youngest of 7 children. In addition to football, Walsh also enjoyed cricket, tennis and basketball. Walsh lost his mother in 2009 and father, a World War II veteran, in 2011. Walsh could speak Japanese, and he was regarded one of the greatest minds in modern football. Walsh was extremely devoted to his role as coach of Adelaide, often waking between 2am and 5am to begin his job.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Phillip 1960 births 2015 deaths Deaths by stabbing in Australia Collingwood Football Club players Richmond Football Club players Brisbane Bears players Brisbane Bears Club Champion winners Adelaide Football Club coaches Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) People from Hamilton, Victoria Australia international rules football team players Patricides Port Adelaide Football Club coaches