Phil Walsh: Australians put out scarves for dead Adelaide coach

Adelaide's football community has been hit hard by the sudden death of Crows coach Phil Walsh

Within hours of the death of Adelaide Crows' coach Phil Walsh, fans were draping club scarves on fence posts and mail boxes around the suburbs of Adelaide in South Australia.

Soon, the hashtag #weflyasone - the club's motto - was adopted by people expressing their grief and sadness at the shocking death of the well-known coach.

Crows club colours of navy blue, red and gold appeared everywhere, even as far away as Sydney's Bronte Beach, and in the United States.

A second hashtag - #putyourscarvesout - soon appeared, reminiscent of the #putyourbatsout tag that appeared after the shock accidental death of young Australian cricketer Phil Hughes last November.

Walsh's death is a far darker story.

Police have charged his 26-year-old son with his father's murder, after the 55-year-old coach was found with multiple stab wounds at his family's Somerton Park home at 2am on Friday.

Walsh's wife is in hospital with non life-threatening wounds.

Australian Rules football dominates life and culture in South Australia and the social media posts reflected how deeply the football community has been affected by Walsh's death.

People wrote about how they woke up on Friday to hear the "tragic news".

"What a tragic day for the Walsh family and the @Adelaide_FC community," tweeted Georgia Harms from Adelaide.

Dressed in her Crows sweater, Georgia posted a photo of herself and her dog with a Crows scarf wrapped around its neck.

Kirsty Trimper hung a Crows scarf on her front porch in Adelaide and tweeted for other Australians to do the same.

Self-proclaimed "long-suffering" Crows supporter Troy Jones, 1,375km (855 miles) away in Sydney, did just that, posting a photo of his team's scarf draped over a sign at Bronte Beach.

There was even a tribute from as far away as Las Vegas, where Emily, a Crows supporter who now also follows football teams such as the Red Sox in her adopted home in the US, draped a Crows jersey over her balcony, "paying tribute to a great man".

The tributes weren't confined to Crows' supporters. Followers of other teams also hung out their scarves and football shirts.

The broader world of Australian Rules football was in mourning too.

Floral tributes built up outside Walsh's club building in Adelaide; someone laid a club jacket alongside the flowers.

In a statement, the club said it was "shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of Senior Coach Phil Walsh".

"His tenure was too short but Phil Walsh's legacy at our Club will be long lasting," it tweeted.