Vale Robert Walls: AFL legend’s best columns for The Age
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A fixture of the game for 50 years, Robert Walls died on May 15, 2025. He was also a longtime football columnist for The Age – read the best of his past columns here.
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Opinion
2009: He’s brash, but boy can Aka play
As a coach, you like your young players to pull their heads in and do a lot of looking and listening. I thought Jason Akermanis would rub a few people the wrong way. And he did.
- by Robert Walls
Opinion
2007: Fond memories of an old sparring partner
When it came to kicking, scratching, spitting, abusing and coat hanging, Kevin Sheedy and I were happy to accommodate each other. Out of that keen rivalry, a begrudging respect grew.
- by Robert Walls
Opinion
2004: Go now, Libba, if you did it
There has been much to admire about Liberatore’s career. But it has been sad to see him desperately clinging to a career that he knows is slipping away fast.
- by Robert Walls
Opinion
2004: Greatness in black and white
Nathan Buckley annoyed a few of the older players because his unbridled enthusiasm embarrassed their not-so-full-on efforts. We played him everywhere – wing, centre, half-back.
- by Robert Walls
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Opinion
2001: Gloves off over a fight for respect
Putting the gloves on at the Bears was commonplace back in the early 1990s. Shane Strempel, who treated the club and his teammates with a lack of respect, needed to be put in a position of dealing with some controlled aggression.
- by Robert Walls
