THE LIFE of football great Robert Walls will be celebrated on Thursday at the MCG after he died last week.

The Carlton premiership player and coach battled illness in recent years before passing away last Thursday.

His funeral will be held at the place of his three Grand Final triumphs with the Blues as a player and one as a coach of the club, and near his East Melbourne apartment.

The service will begin at 10.30am AEST in the Members Dining Room, with access via gate two. An online stream will also be available. 

The AFL life member and Australian Football Hall of Famer had an esteemed history in the game, including as a player, coach and commentator, with AFL boss Andrew Dillon last week crediting Walls' impact at the Brisbane Bears as being significant in the current success of football in Queensland. 

"Robert Walls was a straight talker with very clear ideas on how the game should be played, and the requirements to be successful at the top level. He was beloved by his teammates and the players he led at senior level," Dillon said.

"His list of accomplishments are extraordinary for the breadth of his contribution across the game - both a Hall of Famer and a life member, he was a triple premiership player in the great Carlton sides under Ron Barassi and John Nicholls, a Carlton premiership coach in his time across leading four clubs, and then a leading figure in the media for two decades as a grand final television broadcaster, radio expert in all the big games, award-winning newspaper columnist and an All Australian selector for the league.

"The game was better for Robert being in our ranks and, as a competition, we want to call out his contribution as coach in the early days of the Brisbane Bears, when the club was struggling to establish itself in Queensland.

"Footy in the state is absolutely flying these days with the Lions and the Suns, and we have never forgotten that Robert did the hard yards for the game there when others didn't want to risk their reputations, and he was a major contributor starting the careers of those greats who played in the Brisbane flag sides of 2001-2003."

Walls coached Fitzroy, Carlton, Brisbane and Richmond after a 259-game playing career at VFL level with the Blues and Fitzroy.