In sport, some people you come across are larger than life. Max Walker was one of those.

I remember playing a Sheffield Shield game against him at the MCG.

It was a terrible wicket, as was regularly the case at the ‘G, with the ball barely bouncing above the ankles of batsmen.

Max – who also played AFL football for Melbourne – was batting at number 10 and I was bowling. 

He smashed one back at me but I dived and, a couple of inches off the ground, took probably a career-best caught-and-bowled.

I was stoked, and lying on the ground I was carrying on like a pork chop. 

I looked up at Max, who with a huge smile on his face, quickly told me that’d he taken a couple of marks in that spot, and that they were a lot better than that.

And that was it, Max was off.

It was witty and it was sharp. It was Max.

Max was a character but it wasn’t based on send-offs, carrying on or disputes with umpires.

He was physically big, 6’ 5 and had plenty of muscle – something he’d rely on in his AFL career.

He was an imposing character on the cricket field, but the one thing about Max is that he nearly always had a smile on his face.

Max Walker celebrates a wicket against England. Photo: Getty

As a kid in Wagga Wagga, Max was one of my heroes. 

I loved fast bowlers, so naturally Jeff Thomson, Dennis Lillee and Max were favourites of mine.

I was lucky enough to play against him, right at the start of my career and at the end of Max’s, and we also played some one-day international cricket together.

A lot of people are very different to how you thought they might be when you are just observing from a distance. But not Max.

He was exactly the same as I imagined him – a happy, smiling and generous man.

He would help me out regularly and didn’t see me as an adversary gunning for his position. Not at all.

To play 34 Tests, particularly in the 1970s when the schedules weren’t as hectic, shows how talented Max was.

Walker bowling with that famous action. Photo: Getty

Any Test bowler averaging under 30 is doing pretty bloody good and Max’s was 27.47.

He was the perfect foil for Lillee and ‘Thommo’, particularly with that famous ungainly action that saw him nicknamed ‘Tangles’.

It’s hard to think of cricketers who have made the top level essentially bowling off the wrong foot.

His arms didn’t seem in sync with his feet and it looked a very taxing bowling action.

But Max made it work – and because it was so unusual batsmen struggled facing him.

What a bowling triumvirate that was for Australia. 

Thomson letting them rip with his slinging action, Lillee furiously charging in but in an orthodox manner and then Max.

To play both Test cricket and AFL shows how talented Max was as a sportsman.

And he didn’t play just five or 10 games of football, or one season. He played 85 and was much-loved at Melbourne.

Vale Max Walker. @MattBurgan pays tribute to the man who achieved the ultimate sporting dream: https://t.co/Sf8txqaoCO pic.twitter.com/TmSzcYVarI

— Melbourne Demons (@melbournefc) September 28, 2016

AFL was once thought of as a way to keep cricketers fit in the winter and Max used it for that. 

In fact, I can’t remember him getting a significant injury once – unlike Thommo and Lillee.

At the start of cricket season, Tangles was super fit from footy and it made him a better cricketer.

Because Max was an architect, he wasn’t playing cricket for the money. He played because he loved it.

When I first started doing radio at the end of my career, Max was doing bits of radio and TV in either the same commentary box, or next door. 

The radio and television people didn’t mix as much as you would think but Max always wanted to chat cricket once his shift was done.

On air, Australians grew to love him as a fun commentator, one who was always up, entertaining, and a guy who didn’t take the game so seriously.

Walker’s autograph was always sought after. Photo: Getty

But he certainly had a terrific cricket brain, something that came across more off-air than when he was on.

That was the role he played in broadcasts, though, and Max always excelled at playing his role.

I’ll remember Max as a great team man.

And the image imprinted on my brain of Max is of his huge smile, under that huge moustache, on that huge frame.

Rest in peace, Tangles.