Walls and Fraser finally make up after 49 years of rivalry
KEN Fraser has finally apologised to Robert Walls for decking him in the 1968 semi-final — but that doesn’t mean Wallsy will ever forgive the Bombers as he marks 50 years since his Carlton debut.
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AS a kid growing up in Brunswick as an Essendon-supporting tragic, Robert Walls had to learn how to hate the Bombers.
It didn’t take him long.
Walls celebrates 50 years since his Carlton debut this year, his rivalry with Essendon the abiding theme of that glorious half-century.
Even if Walls doesn’t really quantify that emotion as hate.
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“I was happy to play up the hatred of Essendon. But I didn’t really feel like I needed to hate them because we used to beat them all the time,” he said with a laugh.
It has taken 49 years, but Walls has finally received an apology from the man who gave him his first reality check about his beloved Bombers.
That apology came from Ken Fraser, the boyhood hero whose decking of Walls in the 1968 semi-final made front page news.
Essendon board member and Channel Ten sports visionary David Barham recently brought the two together after all these years.
In truth the lunch in Ivanhoe was as good-hearted as you can imagine given Walls knows there is plenty of theatre about the continuing rivalry.
But as Carlton attempts to sweep Essendon today at the MCG it is easy to see how quickly his love of the Bombers quickly faded.
How Walls learned to hate the Bombers is a story that spans decades.
“As a kid I was a mad Essendon supporter. I would be at Windy Hill every second Saturday before the gates opened with my mates on the fence and be there until the end of the main game,’’ he said yesterday.
“My heroes were blokes like Alec Epis and “Bluey” Shelton and Ken Fraser.
“Ken was someone I idolised. Then I was zoned to Carlton in 1966 in the thirds, was in the seniors the next year and by the second semi of 1968, Carlton played Essendon.
“I was in a back pocket, Wes Lofts was at fullback and Ian Collins was in the other back pocket.
“In that second semi, Ken knocked me out. He put me down, it would only have been a hip-and-shoulder to the head, and by the time I came to Loftsy and Collo had hold of him and were giving him a mouthful.
“They were screaming, ‘Why are you picking on a kid?’ I felt terrible. He was like a hero to me.”
The Blues went on to beat Essendon in the 1968 premiership in Walls’ second season, kicking 7.14 (56) to the Dons’ 8.5 (53).
As he says, the key position star ended up winning 18 of his 23 contests against the Bombers as a player.
Yet if he had cultivated that enmity over 259 games, the last of them solidified his feelings about Essendon.
“The last game I ever played was out at Windy Hill playing for Fitzroy and my knee buckled in the third quarter and I was carried off on a stretcher,” Walls said.
“In those days they had a mesh fence up the race and I can remember being spat on and thinking, ‘Those bastards’.
“My knee had blown up and was buggered and I would never play again, but I can remember pulling out the footy record and thinking, ‘Who was this kid I was playing on?’
“I was struggling to get a kick on him and I thought he was all right. His name was Neale Daniher.”
By the time Walls became an AFL coach in 1981, the rivalry just morphed into a contest with Essendon’s new senior coach.
Carlton and Richmond had regularly sparred through the 1970s, including the 1975 semi-final in which Carlton’s players executed payback for their physical drubbing in the 1973 Grand Final loss.
Walls was suspended for four matches in that final, so by the time he and Kevin Sheedy started their coaching careers in 1981 it wasn’t hard to continue the rage.
“Kevin was a good player for Richmond and I was in the Carlton team, so we crossed paths a bit,” Walls said.
“Then in 1981 he started to coach Essendon and I started to coach Fitzroy so we were both keen to prove we could coach.
“We beat Essendon in 1981 when they had won 16 in a row going into a final out at Waverley, so that was most unexpected.
“But Sheedy and I get on OK now, we are fine.”
Walls is realistic about the Carlton’s prospects tomorrow but knows whenever these two sides butt heads, anything can happen.
“The worry I have with Carlton is they are such a young team and the season might be six games too long for them,” he said.
“Their next four games are pretty tough, but if they were to get a win, wouldn’t you rather it be against Essendon ...”
Originally published as Walls and Fraser finally make up after 49 years of rivalry
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