Zempilas leads WA tributes for broadcasting icon Dennis Cometti

Former sports commentator Basil Zempilas has led local tributes for West Australian broadcasting legend Dennis Cometti, who died aged 76.

Speaking at a packed press conference on Wednesday, Zempilas said, “Den would have loved this”.

“He pulled a big crowd. He would have loved this moment. So good of you all to be here,” he said.

“I think the thing with Den was he was so incredibly gifted. He was the best of his kind at his craft that brought him such love and respect, not only here in Western Australia.

“We all felt so proud of Den. I think he felt like our Dennis Cometti, WA’s Dennis Committee. He was our product, and he dominated on the national stage.”

Zempilas first met Cometti in his late teens when he was playing WAFL at West Perth where the now Opposition Leader expressed interest in becoming a broadcaster like Cometti.

Zempilas went on to work alongside Cometti as a sports reporter at Channel 7.

“To see Dennis walk into the newsroom every afternoon, it was like one of the Beatles had walked in for me, and a similar haircut to The Beatles,” he said.

“It was very clear that to be very good at your craft, and ultimately, whatever craft that is, you have to work hard at it, you can’t just rely on your natural talent and natural gifts, and he showed that to a generation of young broadcasters by the way he applied himself.”

Zempilas remembered the first game he called alongside Cometti was an international rules game, and he offered him some sage advice.

“It was a big game of sorts and Den said, ‘just let the game come to you’,” he said.

“The game is the story, and the game will give you the material to let you be the broadcaster that you can be, and I think it was a great metaphor for lots of things. Let the game come to you.”

Cometti was famous for his adlib and Zempilas peeled back the curtain on his process in coming up with them.

“He would watch tape after tape after tape. He’d watch television from all over the world, particularly sports broadcasting, and he would prepare lines, or think of lines that, in a certain situation, could be rolled out, but they were not situations that he’d necessarily envisage,” he said.

“He just thought, ‘gee, that could be a good line at the right moment, if a set of circumstances ever present’.”

Zempilas said Cometti was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and a “severe” form of dementia before his death.

“No one wanted to see him that way and we knew him as that great orator, that incredible personality, that wonderful smile and that wit, and he wasn’t able to be that person in the last year or so, and so there is some mercy to all of this,” he said.

Zempilas said he would support a state funeral being held for Cometti but that it was ultimately up to his family, and it would not surprise him if they opted for a private service.

WA Premier Roger Cook described Cometti as an “icon”.

“He has called footy for as long as I can remember, and I can even remember watching him on a black and white telly,” he said

“He’s been part of all our lives. He is responsible for coining some of the most iconic phrases in football commentary.”

West Coast Eagles chief executive, Don Pyke said Cometti was without peer.

“He had an innate understanding of the game, honed over five decades as a broadcaster following his playing and coaching career at West Perth, and his calls elevated great moments to even greater heights,” he said.

Cometti was a member of the Australian Football Hall of Fame, the WA Football Hall of Fame and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2019.

The media centre at Optus Stadium was named in his honour when the venue opened in 2018.

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