Prime Minister Tony Abbott has labelled the death of Adelaide AFL coach Phil Walsh a “dreadful, dreadful tragedy”.
Mr Abbott observed a moment of silence at an afternoon tea on Friday while in Hamilton, the small town in western Victoria where Walsh grew up.
“He was a very well-known and very well respected local from a very large and very well respected local family,” he said.
“There is a pall over Hamilton, there is a pall over AFL more generally today and … I certainly would want to extend my deepest condolences to his family, to his friends, to his colleagues.”