The complex relationship between the pair was underlined by the fact that even though they had rarely spoken since Walsh departed Port Adelaide at the end of 2008, Williams was a pallbearer at his funeral and a keynote speaker at the memorial.

Williams delivered his address from a room at Richmond's Punt Road Oval. His speech to camera was simple and yet laden with symbolism. Poignant messages were conveyed but some left unspoken.

It was said that Williams was not sure he could have achieved his tribute in person without breaking down.

Friends of both the passionate and sometimes tempestuous men say it was quite something to watch their highly charged football brains harmonise and occasionally collide during Port's obstacle-ridden path to its first AFL premiership.

When Walsh contacted Williams upon learning of his lymphoma diagnosis last November, that was a breakthrough. The message meant a great deal to the 56-year-old who is now the Tigers head development coach and who this week received the all-clear from his illness.

Williams, who in turn had contacted Walsh to congratulate him when he was appointed to the Adelaide job, had reportedly hoped Walsh's goodwill gesture over his illness would lead to a more meaningful reconciliation. That Walsh's tragic and premature death prevented that was forefront in the minds of many in the football family who sat in the Adelaide stadium's Margery Room as Williams spoke.

He spoke of a friendship that began at Collingwood in 1983 and was cemented during their four years together from 1987 as pioneers for the Brisbane Bears.

The two teammates would take time out from football to surf. Williams showed a scene from the surf classic Big Wednesday and said he had been Gary Busey to Walsh's more charismatic Jan Michael Vincent.

"I would wax your board," he said.

As they watched the breaks, recalled Williams, the two would envisage a future in which Williams would become a coach and Walsh would join him. That is what happened when Williams went to the newly-formed Port Adelaide in the AFL and he lured and promoted Walsh from his fitness role at Geelong.

Williams said that men were not always good at saying thank you but he thanked Walsh now. "You always had my back," he said before adding: "I'm Spartacus."

The classic scene from the 1960 Stanley Kubrick blockbuster, in which the rebellious slave cannot be singled out by the Romans because every other slave claims to be Spartacus, was then played to the room of close to 1000. Spartacus, played by Kirk Douglas, stands among the heroic slaves with tears in his eyes.

It is true that during their time at Port Adelaide the team would return after games to their home base at Alberton. As Williams wandered among the Port faithful, Walsh, the protector, would never leave the side of the senior coach, just in case.

The late Graeme Richmond once said that when football partnerships fell apart the cause could generally be traced back to the question of who received the credit for success and the issue of whether or not that credit was insufficient or disproportionate.

Only a small circle of people who were part of the Port Adelaide inner sanctum in 2004 and beyond believe they have the answer to what happened between Williams and Walsh.

Some have voiced their theories this week but requested those theories remain in the background due to the sensitive nature of the subject.

It is certainly true that the crusade towards the 2004 flag took its toll on those closely involved.

Having been home-and-away champions for the previous two seasons but failing to reach the corresponding grand finals, the pressure on Port in the dying minutes of its 2004 preliminary final against St Kilda can perhaps explain why Williams' wife Pauline fainted among the spectators at AAMI Stadium.

Either way, Williams left no doubt in his tribute to Walsh that he was a primary owner of the premiership, telling him he should be proud of what he - we - achieved.

So many key players left Port immediately after that flag. Alastair Clarkson had already been appointed senior coach of Hawthorn and took with him the Power's high performance boss Andrew Russell and the retiring player Damien Hardwick whom Williams too had wanted as an assistant coach.

Vice-captain Josh Carr, who Williams had anointed as Port's next captain, went to Fremantle; recruiter Alan Stewart to the Crows and the ruck coach David Pittman also resigned. Club chief Brian Cunningham had already signalled he was leaving at the end of that year. But Walsh, despite contemplating leaving, remained at the club until the end of 2008.

Earlier this year he said that "Choco" and he, by the end of their decade together at Alberton, had simply worn each other out.

Williams did not dispute that this week. I put it to him that perhaps one message he was subtlety trying to convey at the memorial was that special friendships and strong relationships should be mended at all costs before it became too late. But it was not a conversation in which he was prepared to publicly engage.

He did say that Meredith Walsh, also a close friend, had moved to put his mind at ease over the issue. Certainly Pauline Williams and Meredith always remained close as did the families of the two men.

Williams, in his tribute, wished peace upon Meredith and both her children Quinn and Cy.

Nathan Buckley, who attended the Phillip Walsh memorial, commented recently and pointedly that one private philosophy he lived and coached by was to always see the best in people.

Upon reflection, that was the view that guided Walsh's extraordinary memorial service; punctuated as it was between his desperately sad funeral five days earlier and the inspiring Showdown named for him which took place four days later.

It was that philosophy which saw Williams stand among those who carried Walsh's body from his funeral and which saw him chosen by the Walsh inner-sanctum to pay tribute to the unique football trailblazer.

And it was that sentiment that led Williams to reflect not on their split but upon the two young men who sat by a beach in southern Queensland at the end of a day's surfing one-quarter of a century ago, who plotted to one day go coaching together and who guided a famous club to a historic AFL premiership.