‘He made footballers famous’: Bruce McAvaney’s tribute after beloved caller Dennis Cometti dies at 76

“Perhaps the most impressive thing about Dennis is that through his calling, he made footballers famous. That’s a gift.”

McAvaney and Cometti were a staple of Seven’s coverage until Cometti retired in 2016. Their last game together was that year’s grand final, when the Western Bulldogs broke a 62-year premiership drought.

“On a personal level, I feel like I’ve lost something truly precious,” McAvaney said.

“We shared an extraordinary journey. We were a similar age and at similar stages of our lives, and we both understood the pressure that came with the role – the effort it demanded and the vulnerability that came with trying to live up to expectations. We leaned on each other through that. We always had each other’s backs.

“While Dennis and I started our careers as colleagues, we ended as friends, and I am so grateful for that.”

Cometti’s style of commentary was notable for stock phrases that he would use, such as “centimetre perfect” and “bobbing like a cork in the ocean”, the latter delivered after West Coast’s Peter Wilson kicked a goal over his head during the Eagles’ historic grand final victory in 1992.

The noted broadcaster, former long-serving Collingwood president, and Cometti’s fellow caller during his time at Nine, Eddie McGuire said Cometti was “a complete joy to work with”.

McGuire said Cometti’s ability to call the action accurately, find the right words for the moment and “drop a trademark line” put him “at the top of commentary anywhere in the world”.

McGuire recalled Cometti’s description of West Coast’s champion Ben Cousins – who had recently fled from a car and swam across the river in a notorious incident when Eagles captain – “Cousins runs away from Carr – not for the first time”.

Another memorable moment came in the 2010 grand final replay when Collingwood’s Heath Shaw smothered St Kilda skipper Nick Riewoldt’s seemingly gimme goal on the goal line: “He came up behind him like a librarian, he never heard him.”

A gem McGuire remembered from their days sharing the microphone came when Richmond defender Darren Gaspar was streaming towards goal, taking a shot that struck the goalpost. Cometti exclaimed, “Gaspar, the unfriendly post!”

“He was more than a one-liner as a commentator. He had a deep and abiding love of the game,” said McGuire of Cometti.

Brownlow medallist Gerard Healy, who worked with Cometti at Seven, said: “Cometti was simply one of the best and a joy to work with. He turned good moments into great, and great moments into forever memorable.”

Cometti was a member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and a member of the Order of Australia.

His talents were such that when the broadcast rights changed from Seven to Nine and then back to Seven, he was assured of a leading role irrespective of which network held the rights.

He worked for the ABC, Seven, Nine, 3AW and Triple M, not only in commentary but also reading sport bulletins on television. Cometti called 51 seasons of football across the three TV networks, mainly with Seven and Nine but also for a year with the ABC when they had the rights to the then VFL in 1987.

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said it was a very sad day for football as he passed the league’s condolences on to Cometti’s family and friends.

“He brought our game to life with his commentary,” Dillon said.

“He will be remembered so fondly by all at the AFL, whether it’s the turn of phrase he had or whether it was because you were a player who played with him, or whether he was a teammate you played with.

“I know the people who worked with him either in radio or TV, they just loved him. So it is a really sad day.”

His famous one-liners, known as Cometti-isms, have become a part of football folklore, and his commentary is tied to many of the game’s great moments.

His exclamation of the “the Cat is still on the back” to mark Geelong forward Tom Hawkins’ after-the-siren goal to sink Hawthorn remains a fond memory for many Cats supporters after their team’s ninth win in a row over their 2008 grand final conquerors.

Earlier in that game, he quipped that Hawthorn’s Matthew Suckling had “allowed two Geelong players to collide numerically”, in a reference to Taylor Hunt and Steve Johnson, wearing numbers 19 and 20, to crash into each other after an ill-fated attempt to tackle.

His description in the 2016 grand final of the moment just before Bulldogs forward Tom Boyd’s long bomb landed in the goal square captured the suspense at the MCG and in pubs and lounge rooms around the country.

“How will it bounce? The stadium holds its breath. It’s a goal. And the western suburbs erupt.”

That was his last game as a TV commentator, though he continued calling games in Western Australia for Triple M until the 2021 grand final in Perth.

Though better known for his work in football, Cometti commentated on cricket with the great Alan McGilvray on the ABC for 13 years, calling his first Test in 1973 aged 23 – the youngest in the public broadcaster’s history. He was part of Seven’s team for the 1997 series in South Africa.

A talented footballer, Cometti played 40 games for West Perth and was on Footscray’s list in 1971 but did not play a senior match. He coached West Perth for three seasons, from 1982-84 for finishes of third, sixth and sixth.

Seven will air a documentary in Cometti’s life and career, titled Centimetre Perfect, later this year.

Cometti is survived by his wife Velia, son Mark and daughter Ricki.

With Peter Ryan