When he picks up the phone to talk to me, I can tell Paul Roos is emotional.
His voice cracks as he remembers his one-time coach and their final conversation. Robert Walls, the Carlton premiership legend has died and his former player and longtime friend is talking to me about the impact the notoriously forthright Victorian has had on him and others.
The Swans premiership hero lives in Hawaii these days, but when he got news that Walls was close to the end, he flew back to Melbourne to say goodbye.
Walls had made the call to end his life using the voluntary assisted dying legislation, which meant Roos knew this was the final time he'd be sharing a coffee with his old coach.
"We spoke about footy, life, he gave me some advice, I made sure he knew what a legacy he had left."
"It was an amazing conversation and one that I don't think many people will have the opportunity to do, so I'll forever treasure that."
"He was very pragmatic, he understood what he was doing."
"I said, 'do you understand the legacy you left?' And he said 'yeah I think I do.'"
Roos believes hard-nosed leaders like Walls are difficult to find in 2025.
"He said 'Paul, you guys were ready to be coached.'"
"The feedback that he gave me I knew came from his heart and he wanted me to get better."
"In some way the things I learned we don't teach anymore because we're too scared and we're too worried. We're too worried about giving feedback, we're too worried about working people too hard, that's my reflection. We've lost a lot of the fabric of the society."
"I'm so appreciative I learned the value of hard work and discipline and feedback and resilience. Because it's definitely missing in society today."
Roos says the AFL titan wasn't all fire and brimstone, far from it.
"We probably didn't get to see the empathy and that side of him (publicly) that his family would talk about."
"One of the greatest things about coming back is sitting with Wallsy, patting his dog, at a café in East Melbourne… that's my lasting memory, which is fantastic."
