WALLIS, Dean

Dean Wallis was recruited from Nhill through Essendon's Wimmera country zone. His first game was against Collingwood in 1987 at Waverley Park.

Wallis took some years to develop and was troubled by persistent hamstring injuries, but was respected by his team-mates for his strength and vigour and his commitment to the cause. His vigour led him to receive a number of suspensions.

He was a member of the 1993 Foster's Cup premiership and later in the year he was controversially selected in the winning 1993 Grand Final team at the expense of Derek Kickett who had played every game during the season. The following year Wallis was named Best Team Man.

Wallis's form fell away in the late 1990s, but he fought his way back and played 23 games at either end of the field in 1999.

At one point he met with coach Kevin Sheedy to explain he had decided to retire, citing frustrating injuries and loss of confidence. Sheedy would have none of it, and talked him round in no uncertain terms.

Wallis was single-minded in his approach to football and was a popular team man because of it. A solid season of 16 games saw "Wally" rewarded with the Best Clubman award and a Grand Final medal in 2000. After briefly flirting with the idea of retirement at the end of the season he signed on again for 2001 but only played one game and decided to retire at the end of the 2001 season.

Wallis took up an assistant coaching position at St Kilda and remained there for 2002 and 2003 before returning to his spiritual home at Windy Hill as an assistant coach in late 2003.

He left Essendon at the end of 2007 for an assistant coaching role at Fremantle with former team-mate, Mark Harvey, and former Essendon assistant coach, Robert Shaw.

He returned to Essendon as development coach in late 2010. He became senior coach at EDFL club, Doutta Stars, in 2015, winning a premiership in his first year..

Wallis suffered a major heart attack in March 2022 while working in Echuca but recovered after surgery.

His son, Tom, was drafted by Essendon in 2016 under the father-son rule. He played with the VFL team but no had senior games.