The other was to say a prayer for her son Cy, who, in the words of the Adelaide Crows chaplain Mark Purser, "is a young man today grieving the loss of his father". Walsh's wife did not speak during what proved to be an uplifting 90-minute celebration of his 55 years, a football life lived to its fullest and one punctuated with travel and study and surfing and an extraordinary passion for popular culture. She sat in the front row with her daughter Quinn and their extended family and friend, surrounded by some thousand AFL and other football figures in the Adelaide Oval's Magarey room, while others spoke on her behalf. The tragic circumstances of Walsh's premature death dictated that Cy Walsh was not with her, and yet he was very much a part of the proceedings. Close friend Sharon Watt, who with her husband Graeme were the last friends to see Walsh that fateful Thursday, said he was "so proud of Cy and Quinn. His family meant the world to him."

Former Port Adelaide premiership coach Mark Williams, unable to travel to Adelaide, paid tribute by film to a "dead-set genius" and said his family wished "Meredith and Quinn and Cy all the peace in the world".

"... We need to be inspired by Phil, be driven like Phil. But remember to take time for each other and take time for your loved ones."

Fifty-five years of family photographs shown in a montage accompanied by Jimmy Barnes' Flame Trees featured countless shots of Walsh and his immediate family, most poignantly the young father lying on his bed with baby Cy.

The Port Adelaide Football Club chaplain of 18 years Brandon Chaplin, whose relationship with Walsh was first tricky but became close, instructed his audience to "do what Phillip always did. Spread the love." Chaplin said Walsh had called him on Thursday, July 2, his last full day alive. "He was unsettled, restless, disturbed. He wanted to catch up with me.

"I am as bewildered, confused, upset and angry as the next person," added Chaplin, "I am deeply grieved. [But] we must forgive those who need forgiving. We must bury the hatchet and we must put down our weapons. We must spread the love."

The handful of media at Wednesday's memorial were asked not to approach Meredith, her family or the Adelaide players.

As it turned out Walsh's "most beautiful girl in the world" – with whom he eloped in Queensland 28 years ago, took out to lunch and then went to training – was happy to talk about her husband after the service and introduce 22-year-old Quinn. She and her daughter had in fact sneaked in to the Adelaide Oval two Sundays ago when they realised some 20,000 football fans had turned up to a non-game to pay tribute to Walsh.

Meredith Walsh had helped design the music that accompanied the ceremony, which included a violinist from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the final number – Paul Kelly's Leaps and Bounds – played as the footballers from Adelaide and Port Adelaide formed a guard of honour as Meredith and Quinn and their family and friends walked between both team. The former Port Adelaide football boss Rob Snowdon, tried to make sense of his close friend's recent press conference which invoked the image of Vincent Van Gough's Sunflowers. He said Walsh's close friends had wondered whether he had ended his personal alcohol ban and started drinking his favourite Shiraz again.

In fact Snowdon said he now believed the reference to "seeing beauty and frustration and masterpieces to be created" probably referred to an Adelaide premiership. "He (Walsh) liked ticking boxes," said Snowdon. "He always talked about ticking boxes. He really wanted to be a senior coach but no one ever asked him.

"Mark Ricciuto I don't know if you're here today but thank you for asking him. He can tick that box." Walsh was the youngest of seven, born in Hamilton Victoria to Bill and Peg. His memorial invoked memories of the 1960s and '70s, of a young boy throwing his tennis racquet at his older sisters when they defeated him, of a surfer at Port Fairy's East Beach and music fan tearing around the house on Sunday nights during 'Countdown' singing 'Ego Is Not A Dirty Word' and 'Echo Beach'.

In his early 20s Walsh with a group of mates attempted to steal the Streets icecream cone from the top of the Penshurst Milk Bar. His laugh was "brilliant and boisterous" but he was not as complex as the media had portrayed him. Rather a simple man with simple tastes.

And yet, according to his friend Mark Williams "he was different," choosing the number 41 at Collingwood in tribute to Roger Bannister who wore that number when he broke the four-minute mile.

Williams relationship with Walsh was certainly complex. They parted badly after 10 ultimately triumphant years at Port Adelaide. Walsh said earlier this year the pair had simply "worn each other out." And yet Williams had the final say. "Most of us men we don't know how to say thanks. Thanks Phil. You always had my back. I'm Spartacus." In fact the former Port coach showed vision of that Kirk Douglas blockbuster during his tribute along with an excerpt of two of Walsh's other favourite movies.

One, 'The Right Stuff' was about men "propelled into the unknown, into the future." Walsh said Williams was a forerunner to Champion Data.

His game plans remained in Williams' files at home and ten other coaches now working in the AFL system were benefitting from his intellectual brilliance.

The other was 'Big Wednesday' the surfing classic. Williams said that Walsh invoked the star Jan Michael Vince t while he Williams was Leroy, played by Gary Busey. "I would wax your board." Sitting on stage alongside a surfboard were a bottle of Shiraz, a packet of his more recent preferred drop green tea, a Japanese phrase book — Walsh had a degree in linguistics and once delivered his Port players a serve in Japanese — and a packet of sweets — another vice.

Rob Snowdon singled out all those symbols of a life ended too soon, thanked the football community from Gillon Mclachlan down for the support which had been "unequivocal, which had no boundaries." And then he delivered a final instruction which he said Walsh himself would have approved of.

"About this time he would grab Tex and Travis and say 'Come on. Move on. Go bash the hell out of each other and make the year whatever you want it to be'." Snowdon said Walsh would have had the same message for his replacement Scott Camporeale and Port's Ken Hinkley.

It was said by the Adelaide chaplain Purser that when Walsh delivered instructions, people ran a little faster. By way of closing the proceedings Purser too invoked the Crows short lived but ever remembered coach.

"Come on!" Said Purser. "Get up. Get on with it and get the job done."