Slain Adelaide Crows coach Phil Walsh’s son Cy Walsh speaks about life on websites
IN his online profiles, Cy Walsh lists his interests as yoga, meditation and surfing. Now he is charged with murdering his father, Crows coach Phil Walsh.
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IN his online profiles, Cy Walsh outlines a seemingly idyllic lifestyle that he is willing to share with other international travellers.
“My parents and me share the space, the spare bedroom is ready to go with inflatable mattress,” he wrote on couchsurfing.com.
“Smoking is fine, pet dog in residence (jack russel), near oval for Aussie rules games.
“We sleep early and wake early ... 3 nights max.”
Walsh, 26, today was arrested and charged with murdering his father, Adelaide Crows coach Phil Walsh, in the early hours of Friday.
He was taken to Flinders Medical Centre and faced court by a telephone-link bedside hearing this afternoon.
“There is no application (for bail), but for the court’s assistance, Mr Walsh is currently sedated,” his lawyer, Rebecca Gristwood, told a magistrate from his bedside.
“I have not been able to take further instructions from him other than my speaking to him first thing this morning.”
Magistrate Sue O’Connor remanded Walsh in custody to face court again in September.
Although his father was a high-profile and acclaimed sports leader, little was publicly known about his son prior to Friday morning’s tragic events.
A photo on a Facebook account shows the family smiling at the camera, huddled in close to one another.
On one of his two blogs, Cy Walsh speaks eloquently about violence in schools, calling it an issue that touches everyone.
“We coexist in a society where violence is an accepted part of daily life,” he wrote.
“It comes back to our individual responsibilities as fully developed adults to set good examples for our children.
“We need to cultivate a culture of nurturing, safety and love, not one of violence, bullying and fear.”
In April, Phil Walsh told the Herald Sun he was trying to “reconnect” with his son after his obsession with football made family life difficult at times.
Cy Walsh’s main online presence was couchsurfing.com, a website calling itself “a network of 10 million interesting locals in over 230 countries and territories all across the world”.
The site offers ways for international travellers to secure safe, cheap or free accommodation with like-minded individuals who have gone through its verification process.
It also allows users to create a personal profile listing their interests and displaying their photos, as well as listing references from other users.
Cy Walsh has been a member of the site since 2012, and his last recorded login was two months ago.
In his profile, Cy Walsh describes himself as a cocktail bartender, originally from Geelong, with a diploma in Japanese.
He says he has lived in Australia and Japan, and visited Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and the Amazon jungle.
He describes his “current mission” is to “prepare myself financially, spiritually and linguistically for the adventure of my life”.
“(I) graduated high-school in 06 then spent 07 living in Japan as an exchange kid,” he wrote.
“I was in second year high school (equivalent Year 11 in Australia) ... came back and finished my Bachelors (degree), worked to save some money.
“(I) did two trips, South-East Asia for three months and then India, South America, and North America for about 11 months.
“Now I am back home with my parents, and want to give back and meet some people.”
Cy Walsh says he has never used the site “to successfully find a couch” but has found “some couchsurfing meet-ups and parties around the place, which was fun”.
He says part of the reason he wants to host people in his home is that he “ended up on quite a few” couches in North America, meeting “some wonderfully nice people” as a result.
He lists his interests as yoga, meditation, surfing, cross fit and learning to play guitar.
“I prefer books over TV and documentaries over movies,” he wrote.
“My number one priority is to live and experience each moment, no matter what, to a degree of success.”
Between April and July, 2009, Cy Walsh maintained another Wordpress blog entitled “More than a Man: words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning”.
“I am a 20 year old Australian aspiring pick-up artist with a passion for Asia, Asian girls and learning Japanese,” he wrote.
“When I’m not studying Japanese I’m with friends, building my social circle or out sarging (sic) Asian college girls in an attempt to expand that circle.”
In the blog’s first entry, Cy Walsh says the things we believe “are often false” and that discovering he is “completely inaccurate” in his beliefs is “fine with me”.
“It’s all part of the learning process of life to be corrected, to make mistakes, to ‘fall off the horse’ so to speak,” he wrote.
“In this vain (sic)... I would like to establish that I may or may not actually have a clue about what I’m talking about.
“However, even if I am in reality wrong and think I am correct I will always talk as if I know what I’m on about, and act as if my word is final.
“Why? Because it’s part of being a confident person.”
In other entries he describes periodic obsessions with checking his Facebook, working out, organic diets, Japanese music and video games.