Phil Walsh was the AFL’s most interesting coach

PHIL Walsh was a Japanese-speaking teetotaller. Here’s what you didn’t know about the coach who’s been tragically killed.

Phil Walsh (Coach, Adelaide) walks off AAMI Stadium after training. Adelaide Crows football training on AAMI Stadium this morning, the day before their game against Carlton in Melbourne. 05/06/15 Picture: Stephen Laffer

PHIL Walsh had spent most of his 20-year off-field AFL career working in the shadows.

But the 55-year-old former Power and West Coast assistant — who was tragically murdered today — was one of the most respected and interesting men in the AFL.

FOX FOOTY WILL SCREEN AN AFL 360 SPECIAL ON PHIL WALSH FROM 6:30PM EST TONIGHT

Here is a story from late last year on 10 things you may not have known about Phil Walsh.

1. HE HAD A LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE IN PERU

WALSH was travelling in Peru in October 2012, when he was hit by a bus.

“I saw the white light,” Walsh said.

Then an assistant coach at West Coast, Walsh fractured his pelvis and collarbone but was able to convince local doctors and his insurance company to fly him home to Australia for surgery.

The accident had a major impact on Walsh’s outlook on life.

He asked his wife, Meredith, to return and photograph the intersection and keeps the photo as the desktop on his laptop as a reminder to be positive.

2. HE WAS LEARNING TO SPEAK JAPANESE

POST-accident, Walsh also wrote a list of what he wants to achieve in life.

This included speaking fluent Japanese, so he listened to language tapes on his headphones while riding his bike to work every day.

We’re not sure whether “becoming an AFL head coach” was written on the list, but if it was he ticked that off, too.

3. HE WAS A TEETOTALLER

ONE of the other lifestyle changes Walsh made after the bus accident was to stop drinking alcohol.

He was all about living an active and healthy lifestyle, riding his bike 17km to and from training at Alberton this season because life was “too short to spend it in a car”.

4. HE BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN AT DEAN BAILEY’S FUNERAL

DEAN Bailey, the former Melbourne head coach, was one of Walsh’s closest friends.

They were assistants together at Port Adelaide and remained the best of mates despite their careers taking them in different directions.

Walsh was one of the few people outside of Bailey’s family who was welcome to visit him in the final weeks before he died from cancer in March.

He also gave a eulogy at his funeral and from all reports delivered an exceptionally touching speech.

Phil Walsh was the AFL’s most interesting coach.

5. HE LOVED INTERNATIONAL SPORTS

NFL, college football, European soccer — you name it, Walsh followed it.

He satisfied his passion for sport by taking an overseas trip after every footy season to enjoy a new experience.

He’d been in a 107,000-strong crowd to watch the Penn State vs Ohio State rivalry in the US, attended soccer games in Rio and seen riot police shoot tear gas into a frenzied crowd at a Boca Juniors clash in Buenos Aires.

6. HE WAS A COUNTRY BOY

HAILING from Hamilton in country Victoria, Walsh rated playing senior footy for his hometown team as one of the best moments of his career.

7. HE WON THE BRISBANE BEARS’ INAUGURAL BEST AND FAIREST

WALSH played 122 AFL games — mainly as a wingman — and was part of the Collingwood vs Richmond player wars in the 1980s.

After Tiger stars David Cloke, Geoff Raines and Brian Taylor moved to Collingwood, the Tigers responded by poaching several Magpies, including Walsh who had just been named Collingwood’s best first-year player and would have won the Rising Star Award if it existed back then.

The Tigers were hell-bent on revenge and the recruiting war almost sent the club broke, and didn’t help the team on the field either.

After a couple of average seasons at Tigerland Walsh joined the Brisbane Bears in 1987, winning the club best-and-fairest and averaging 21 disposals a game.

Walsh was regarded a tactical genius.

8. HE STARTED AS A FITNESS COACH AT GEELONG

A FEW years after his AFL career ended, Walsh started as the Cats’ strength and conditioning coach under Gary Ayres.

He filled the role from 1995-98, before joining former teammate Mark Williams at Port Adelaide.

He spent 10 years in his first stint with the Power before joining West Coast, where he stayed from 2009-13.

When Alan Richardson was poached by St Kilda last year, Walsh returned to Port to manage its midfield.

9. HE WAS A TACTICAL GENIUS

WALSH was Mark Williams’ chief assistant when Port won its only premiership in 2004 and was given huge credit for the way they played.

He was also largely responsible for installing the forward press that saw West Coast jump from bottom spot to the top four in 2011.

Anyone who played under Walsh raved about his ability to read the game and predict where it’s going.

Port champions Warren Tredrea and Chad Cornes were among his biggest fans, while newly-crowned best and fairest Robbie Gray said recently: “He is tactically as good as they come in the AFL.”

10. HE SAID HE COULDN’T IMAGINE WORKING FOR THE CROWS

WALSH was once quoted as saying: “If I was in Adelaide I couldn’t ever see myself working for any other club.”