And he’d be forever pleased that Dunkley was the inaugural winner of the Robert Walls Medal, which is presented to the player judged best afield whenever Brisbane play Carlton.

Up for grabs again at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night, it is an honour introduced by the clubs in partnership after Walls’ death on 15 May last year aged 74 following a long fight with cancer and recognises his massive contribution to Brisbane, Carlton and Fitzroy.

The former school teacher played 218 games for Carlton and 41 games for Fitzroy from 1967-80, and coached Fitzroy (1981-85), Carlton (1986-89) and Brisbane (1991-95) before a short stint at Richmond (1996-97) closed out a career that spanned 40 years, 606 games and four premierships.

He was later a hugely-respected media figure for more than 20 years as a newspaper columnist, television and radio expert commentator, and a hard-hitting panel member on several magazine shows.

The Robert Walls Medal was presented for the first time in Round 18 last year when Brisbane beat Carlton by 37 points at Marvel Stadium.

Dunkley had 28 possessions (14 contested), 13 tackles, 30 pressure acts and a player rating of 23.8 – the fourth best in his time in the #5 Brisbane jumper.

He received the medal from Daniel Walls, the second son of the man who was elevated to ‘legend’ status in the Brisbane Lions Hall of Fame on 2 May this year.

Why would Walls be such a Dunkley fan? Because he is a Walls-type of player in every way.  A leader who is always ‘team first’, is as hard as they come, and is as focussed as any player on the defensive side of the game.

The 2025 Merrett/Murray Medallist and 2026 co-captain loves the challenge of shutting down a gun opposition midfielder, and when it comes to priorities on the statistics sheet he values tackles, contested possessions, pressure acts and goal assists more highly than a flashy goal or a surging run through the midfield.

In fact a surging run through the midfield isn’t part of the Dunkley game. Because in 97 games with Brisbane his running bounce count is precisely zero. And he’s had more than twice as many goal assists as he’s kicked goals in Brisbane colors. It’s 40 to 18.

He’s topped the Lions tackle in 2023-24-25 and is on track to do so again this year.

He’s had 678 tackles in Lions colors at 6.99 tackles per game. Next best in the same period on an average basis is Hugh McCluggage (3.86) from Lachie Neale (3.43), Will Ashcroft (3.37), Kai Lohmann (2.80), Cam Rayner (2.74), Zac Bailey (2.64), Jarrod Berry (2.48) and Charlie Cameron (2.42).

Overall, Dunkley ranked seventh in the League for tackles in 2023. He was fifth in 2024 and second in 2025, and is second again this year behind Adelaide’s Sam Berry.

He ranks fourth in the League this year for pressure acts, averaging 22.6 per game – fewer only than Melbourne’s Tom Sparrow (24.3), Geelong’s Tom Atkins (24.2) and Sydney’s James Rowbottom (23.2).

Walls, who played a key role in the early years of more than half of the Brisbane premiership side of 2001-02-03, also loved a match-winner. Like Neale.

So he would have been pleased, too, to see the dual Brownlow Medallist win the Robert Walls Medal in Round 9 this year when the Lions prevailed by 11 points at the Gabba.

Neale had 33 possessions (16 contested), nine clearances and the match-clinching goal 29 minutes into the final stanza after the Blues had cut a 38-point Lions advantage to 10 points.

His medal was presented by Walls’ granddaughters Sienna and Tara Perry.

Robert's daughter, Rebecca, will present the medal this Saturday.