Robert Walls liked his players tough. If you played under the former Brisbane, Fitzroy and Brisbane great you had to be hard at the ball and hard at the man with the ball.

So ‘Wallsy’ would have been delighted when the inaugural Robert Walls Medal for the player judged best afield in Brisbane’s 37-point win over Carlton at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night was won by one of the League’s really tough players.

Josh Dunkley had 28 possessions, including a team-high 14 contested possessions, a game-high and season-high 13 tackles and four clearances. Plus seven intercept possessions, seven score involvements and five inside 50s, which ranked second for the winning side.

He was the first recipient of a medal that will be awarded to the player voted best afield in all Lions v Blues games moving forward to honour the much-decorated AFL Hall of Famer who died on 15 May after a long battle with cancer.

Now 17 games into the season, the Lions vice-captain is one of two players in the League to have had 400 possessions, 100 tackles and 80 clearances. He has 410 possessions, 119 tackles and 82 clearances.

The other player to have hit the 400-100-80 treble, albeit partway through Round 18, is Carlton’s George Hewett.

But if we add defensive pressure acts, intercept possessions and score involvements as ‘tie-breakers’ Dunkley can claim the title of the League’s unofficial all-round ‘tough guy’.

‘Wallsy’ would be happy with that, too. He loved Dunkley because, as he said often, “he always puts the team first .. always does the tough stuff that makes others look good”.

Dunkley’s 13 tackles on Thursday night was his best in Brisbane colours after he had 15 in 2019 and 14 in 2022 at the Western Bulldogs, and the most by a Brisbane player this year.

Looking forward to a Gabba clash with his former club the Western Bulldogs next Friday night, Dunkley was imperative to the Lions’ best tackling performance of the year in which they had 69 tackles overall and 20 tackles inside the forward 50m zone.

This total was 15 up on the total tackle season average, and below only the 73 tackles against Richmond in Round 4, while the inside-50 figure was a season high – almost double the season average.  

Also against Carlton, Darcy Wilmot had a career-high 31 possessions – his second 30-plus game of the year after he had an even 30 against St.Kilda in Round 7.