He was 84.

One of the game's toughest players and most assertive commentators on television, May died on Monday and had his funeral on Friday kept private by his family.

May was a second-generation Bomber when he followed his father Charlie's footsteps to Essendon to start his 94-game VFL career in 1947. He won two premierships - 1949 and 1950 - with the Bombers where he made his name as a ruckman and defender.

May stood out of football in 1953 to claim his clearance to SANFL club Sturt where he played 54 league games and won the Double Blues' best-and-fairest award in 1955. He represented SA twice.

May became captain-coach at Sturt in 1956, a role he held for just one season.

He was a pioneer of football coverage on television as the first of the great "special comments" commentators.

In the tandem with Max Hall and Ian Aitken, Hall would throw to May with the line: "Comment, Wally May."

"As soon as a goal was kicked, we would say, 'Comment, Wally May' and all of his summations were excellent," said Hall on Friday describing news of May's death as a "shock".

Pioneering television producer Des Flavel said: "He called it as he felt it. We all know his famous saying: 'If you can't kick, you can't play'.

"On the field he was the toughest, off the field he was the loveliest man you could have met."

Umpiring and media great Ken "KG" Cunningham recalled May as a "gentle giant".

"He was unique," Cunningham said. "His ability to read a game and go on television to tell the viewers what had happened was quite unbelievable.

"As a player he was renowned for his toughness and aggression. But at Channel 9 in those early days of television I knew him as a gentle giant, as one of the nicest blokes you could wish to meet.

"In his commentary he would not hold back. He had no time for players who were not prepared to put their head over the ball and win it. He loved tough football because that is the way he played it."

SANFL chief executive Leigh Whicker, a Sturt Hall of Famer, remembers May as his "childhood hero".

"As a kid I would go to Unley Oval and see Wally May the Sturt captain in those changerooms and he became my idol for what he did on the field," said Whicker.

"He was very colourful. He was tough on the field and gentle off it."

Magarey Medallist and Sturt legend John Halbert recalls May's football brilliance and team spirit.

"Few people understand how good a footballer Wally May was," he said. "He was very skilful.

"Whenever Wally got the ball in defence, I used to run into a space and Wally would kick it to me invariably. He was a beautiful kicker of the ball and I'd be confident that if I ran and got into a space, that he would find me with the kick.

"It was very good to play in the same side as Wally May. He was very good for me in particular because in those early years I was young and I was skinny – I probably only weighed about 11 stone.

"Having Wally alongside of you was very good because he added a degree of protection to you and I think he scared or perhaps bluffed some players who were inclined to get a bit nasty at times.

"Players knew that if they whacked a Sturt player then they would be accountable to Wally.

"You would say, 'Touch me again and I'll tell Wally' and they'd lose a bit of interest then."

Magarey Medallist and Port Adelaide great Geof Motley recalls May as a "humble man".

"He was a quietly spoken man, a great player, a true team player who understood the game the the ultimate degree," said Motley, who knew May as an opponent and State team-mate.

"As a ruckman he was an unusual size – less tall than other ruckmen, but far more effective. He was a very effective player – and as tough as they get."

Essendon team-mate Jack Jones described May was a true gentleman of the game.

"He was a great bloke and a lovely man and it's very sad to think that he's gone," Jones said.

"On the field he was a great ruckman, a short ruckman, but he had a very strong and physical presence.

"He was a local boy in the area and has a really strong family connection with the club. His father played in the 1920s and was also a dual premiership player.

"He really became an icon around the place and was very well respected."

Essendon players will wear black arm bands in honour of May during the Dreamtime at the MCG game on Saturday night against Richmond.

May's death comes in the week the Sturt Football Club uncovered a long-forgotten poem written on the great.

"The Sturt Football Club is very proud to have been associated with a man of his standing in, and unbridled passion for the game of Australian football," said Sturt chief executive Matt Benson.

"Wally is an SANFL legend and is fondly remembered as the voice of SA football in the 1970s. He will be sadly missed."

 Former South Adelaide and State player Ian Day knew May as a rival on the field and in the commentary box as he became the voice of Channel 7 while May worked on 9.

"Wally was a very tough man, but very fair,'' he said. "I can remember one of our South Adelaide players coming at Wally and when he finished on the ground Wally congratulated him for not dogging it - and he even helped him up. You had no problem with Wally if you played tough and fair.

"As a commentator, he called a spade a shovel.

"While I was at Seven, I admired the way he and Ian Aitken worked their duo. It was very good.

"You had to respect Wally. He was a good bloke off the field.''

Hall of Fame member and selector, Magarey Medallist Bob Hank, admired May as "a warrior''.

"Wally was one who would put his mark on the game - he was a hard nut,'' said Hank who played in West Torrens' ruck division that battled against May.

SA Football Hall of Fame chairman and former SANFL president Max Basheer described the catchprase "Comment Wally May'' as part of SA's football culture.

"Wally was fantastic for SA football,'' he said. "I remember going to train at Sturt when Wally had arrived from Melbourne - he was a marvellous player who had a big impact on SA football on and off the field.

"What he did for the game on television cannot be underestimated.''

AFL commissioner and SANFL premiership player and coach Bob Hammond hailed May as "an outstanding broadcaster''.

"We remember two aspects of Wally May,'' he said. "A tough footballer, a very good footballer - and an outstanding broadcaster who read and called the game so well.

"How can we ever forget that line, 'Comment Wally May'?''

Glenelg great Harry Kernahan, who knew May's father Charlie when he coached the Tigers in the late 1950s, described Wally as a man "who played without fear''.

"(Sturt coach) Jack Oatey one day told me Wally always was able to sum up a new kid's value at Unley - he was one of the finest judges of football,'' said Kernahan. "He was a fine bloke, a marvelous bloke.''

Reverential: Geelong players bow their heads in tribute to legendary Cat player and coach Bob Davis. Photo: Getty Images

THE football community paid tribute to Geelong legend Bob Davis at Etihad stadium last night with a minute's silence. It was, in one way, an incongruous testimonial. Bobby ''Woofa'' Davis was rarely silent.

The football field, where he excelled for a decade, is a boisterous, chatty place.

Later, he was a premiership-winning coach, so by definition never short of words.

In his more than 40 years in as a football media pioneer, silence would have been anathema.

Former League Teams and World of Sport producer Gordon Bennett remembered this week that Davis was always the noisiest voice in the studio (and in competition with Lou Richards, that was some feat).

''I used to have to go to him and say: 'Bob, shush','' Bennett said. ''From then on, he called me Captain Shushes.''

Elsetimes, Bennett would have to wind up Davis in full flight. One day, after a particularly insipid performance by the Brisbane Bears, he launched into an attack on every player and got about halfway before Bennett cut him short.

On television and radio, silence is death. Even as a newspaper columnist, for The Herald and later The Sunday Age, it would not have done for Davis to have nothing to say. He always did.

Silence can be the sound of the solitary. Davis was never that. In an interview two years ago, he said that however grateful the people of Geelong were to him for his football exploits, he was for their solicitude.

''Even now, if I walk down the street to do anything, I reckon I say hello to 50 people in two or three blocks,'' he said.

But, in context, silence is a powerful sound.

As Geelong emerged to run through a banner that read ''Let's Make Tonight Fair Dinkum Unbelievable'', and the official din that calculatedly drowns out all thought in a modern football arena faded away last night, and at last a hush set in, all 48,429 were left to contemplate their memories of a man who had a place in the AFL's Hall of Fame, and in every football-following lounge room, and in every Geelong heart. Chirpily.

At length, the reverential silence was broken by the siren. It was the sound of the beat of Bob Davis's well-lived life.

The match that followed was a worthy tribute to the Geelong champion.

Carlton jumped to an early lead, but the Cats clawed back in the second quarter and the teams went into the break at half-time 8.6. (54) apiece.

Geelong went into the final quarter leading by just seven points and hung on to win 15.12. (102) to 14.16. (100).