Today, we’re thinking about Phil Walsh’s wife and daughter.

‘They have cruelly and unexpectedly been dealt the harshest blow, effectively losing two family members in one tragic moment.’

In the early hours of this morning, while most of us were tucked up in bed, Phil Walsh was brutally murdered in his home. The 55-year-old died from multiple stab wounds. Police say there was an argument and they were called from someone inside the seaside home in suburban Adelaide around 2am. His wife, Meredith, suffered injuries to her leg.

Their son, 26-year-old Cy Walsh, has been charged with his father’s murder and is undergoing psychiatric assessment.

Phil Walsh’s death has shocked the nation today, not only because of the vicious way in which he was killed, but also because he was a much revered public figure.

The AFL world has paid tribute to the Adelaide Crows coach, describing Walsh as a man with a dry sense of humour and boundless energy. Intense. Fiercely competitive. Passionate. A tactical genius. A great man.

Today, we are thinking of his wife and daughter, who have cruelly and unexpectedly been dealt the harshest blow, effectively losing two family members in one tragic moment.

Related: Adelaide Crows coach allegedly murdered, son in police custody.

We can only imagine Meredith’s recovery in hospital is just the beginning of her journey, with so many questions left unanswered.

Her 22-year-old daughter is at a summer camp in the US. Her husband is dead. Her son is in custody. If she had previously dared let herself think about what losing her husband would be like, she probably had visions of her children standing next to her at his funeral, holding her hand, grieving themselves, as well as trying to support her. She could never have imagined her husband’s full life would come to such a grisly end – allegedly at the hands of his own son.

For not only is today the day she lost her husband, the man she chose to endure life’s ups and downs with, it is most likely also the day she lost her son. She may have to testify against him at trial. If he is found guilty, he could spend decades in jail or a forensic hospital. Even if he is found not guilty, notwithstanding the remarkable strength of a mother’s bond with her child, few relationships could survive this.

Today, we are thinking of Meredith. And we are thinking of her daughter, as she likely makes the devastating, long and lonely journey home. Far removed from the cold and darkness that enveloped the Somerton Park home in which her family unit was obliterated without her knowledge, she would be plagued with more questions than anybody.

Today, there is also a football team in complete shock, like the rest of Australia. The game on Sunday they had been busily preparing for has been cancelled, seemingly such a trivial pursuit now that tragedy has grabbed them by both shoulders and shaken them to core. Just last year they lost assistant coach Dean Bailey to cancer – Walsh reportedly spoke with eloquence and gusto while delivering his eulogy – but to have their leader ripped from their lives in such a callous attack is unprecedented.

Walsh had a new lease on life since being hit by a bus in Peru in 2012. He asked Meredith to photograph the scene of his near-death experience and kept it – his “wake up call” – as the background on his laptop. He stopped drinking, rode to work every day and took up learning Japanese.

The man who started his life as the youngest of seven siblings in Hamilton, in country Victoria, admitted his footy obsession may have taken a toll on his family.

He recently told the Herald Sun he had “a disconnect” with his son because of footy, but had managed to reunite with him.

“I just immersed myself, got consumed and was selfish with as much time I committed to footy,” he said.

“I lost that connection and I’m trying to reconnect with my son, which I have done.”

He said he taught his daughter to surf, a pastime they enjoyed together, and recently taught his son – something he said he “should’ve done a long time ago”.

“A couple of months ago, we all went surfing together at Middleton and it was almost the best day I’ve had… ever. We all got a wave, went to the bakery on the way home, we smiled, and laughed and there was none of this stuff, that I’ve got Melbourne, then the Bulldogs, then Port. Just none of that.’’

Walsh says one of his biggest regrets was not being able to pull himself together to speak at his mother’s funeral. To eulogise a parent is almost a rite of birth – one that his son will also miss out on.

“I tell my kids to chase their dreams, so I probably don’t want to look back at 70 years old and think what might have been,” Walsh said.

But today that opportunity to look back and reflect at 70, the journey of growing old with his wife and the wondrous experience of become a grandparent have all been cruelly stolen from him.

Today, we want Walsh’s wife and daughter to know they are not alone in grieving their lost family members. We are with you.

Social media is filled with tributes to Phil Walsh: