There has been an outpouring of emotion during the funeral of West Coast Eagles champion Adam Hunter.

Hundreds turned up to the service in Bunbury, Western Australia, where Hunter was remembered as a fun-loving larrikin with a passion for family, football and fishing.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Mourners say farewell to Adam Hunter.

Among the AFL stars who watched on, there was Brownlow medallist Ben Cousins, and other former West Coast superstars such Nic Naitanui, Andrew Embley, Michael Braun, Ash Hansen, Quinten Lynch, Beau Waters, Drew Banfield, and more.

In a touching detail, a fishing rod was placed on Hunter’s casket, and it was draped in a West Coast and South Bunbury flag. The coffin was driven in to the tune of Daryl Brathwaite’s iconic hit The Horses, with the rod carried at the front.

John Worsfold, the man who coached Hunter in his famous grand final appearance in 2006, spoke at the service, as did former West Coast chief Trevor Nisbett, Hunter’s mother Joanne Brown and his partner Latisha Yacoub.

In a heartbreaking moment, Yacoub revealed Hunter’s finals words just hours before his tragic death earlier this month at the age of 43.

She said the man she knew as “H” was her “lover, my best friend, my soulmate and the absolute love of my life”.

She also revealed that they first starting seeing each other 23 years ago. “Most people don’t know (that),” she said.

“We’ve had our fair share of ups and downs but no matter what we both knew that there’d never be anybody else,” she said.

“Some people wait a lifetime to experience the love we share.

“I will miss his constant phone calls during the day, most of which were to make sure I was asleep and then get cross when I answered the phone but he was the reason I was awake.

“One of the last quotes H said to me was ‘one day the right person will walk into your life and make you realise why every ‘no’ was preparing you for the perfect ‘yes’.

“H, you will always be my yes.”

She said they had waited to buy a house and a “white picket fence” was one of Hunter’s dreams. She said marriage was also on the horizon.

“And two hours before he took his last breath, he said to me, this is our year,” she said.

Hunter was a premiership player at South Bunbury in the South West Football League and had been training at the club’s Hands Oval base in the lead-up to his death.

The defensive swingman played a key role in West Coast’s narrow 2006 grand final victory, booting the Eagles’ final goal of the game in the one-point win.

He was arguably the Eagles’ best player of that finals series, with four-goal hauls in the qualifying and preliminary finals to sit alongside Peter Sumich as the only players in club history to kick four or more majors in successive finals matches.

Worsfold – who was at the helm for the majority of his 151-game career – said he’d wished they had played alongside one another.

“If I do shed a tear, it’s a tear of pride for having got the opportunity to work so closely with a great young man,” he said.

“I would have loved to have played alongside him. Little did I know a few years later I would be coaching him.

“All he wanted to do was play footy. All he wanted to do was train and be with his mates. Everything else was secondary. He would never want to miss a training session. I tried to talk him into having a light night one night but he refused it because he just wanted to be out training with the boys.”

Worsfold described Hunter as a “brilliant footballer” who was all about playing his role.

“He didn’t seek accolades. He wanted to do what was right for our team,” he said.

“We were extremely proud of having him as part of our football club. He played a massive part in what this club has achieved over its short history.

“Everyone loved Hunts, everyone enjoyed being around him.”

Worsfold said they had to force Hunter to retire because of his serious shoulder injury.

“He didn’t want to retire through injury, even after being told that he was putting the rest of his life at risk with a bad shoulder if he played any more footy. He was prepared to cop that,” Worsfold said.

“He would’ve lived the rest of his life with one arm if he could’ve squeezed a few more years out at West Coast, but unfortunately we couldn’t allow that.”

Nisbett – who is also a doyen of South Bunbury – said he remembered being told about Hunter as an extremely talented teenager.

“I got a phone from Peter Upson going back when to he was about 14 years of age, he rang me and said ‘you’ve got to come and look at this skinny kid who is playing with the juniors at the time for South Bunbury’ and he said ‘he’s just remarkable’,” Nisbett said.

“I spoke to our recruiting guys and they’d already seen him play and had him on tab for what they thought was an outstanding career.

“Being a South Bunbury boy, we struck up a very good relationship very early on. When he was playing for Swan Districts he always said to me, ‘I still want to play with the Eagles and I still want to play with South (Bunbury) when I finish’. He’s done all those things.”

Nisbett said Hunter was “one of the most pleasant people” he’d ever met.

“Hunts was underrated as a player, was one of our most important players in that era,” he said.

“He was highly regarded by every player that played with him and every supporter person who was around the place at the time.

“To see the man who he has become and grown into and to lose him, our memories will live on, we celebrate those memories for ever in a day. Goodbye mate.”

South Bunbury players and officials formed a guard of honour as Hunter exited the arena to pay their respects for an incredible life.

Hunter’s family requested guests donate to Neuropathology Brain Banks for the service, in lieu of flowers.

- With The West Australian