Universal Love Vale Dennis Cometti

[Jojay]

 

[Peninsula Boy]

It was Dennis and then daylight.

He enhanced watching footy but within footy itself.

The GOAT.

 

[_VXV]

He meant a lot to most but he was the most for old Cal

 

[Portmagpies36]

I don't think it is a coincidence that since Dennis retired, my desire it watching football waned dramatically.

He was the best, that isn't a dispute, but he was also the last caller that called the game unbiased, concentrated on the play happening instead of which private school a player went to or back slapping from stories of yesteryear, and knew the nuances of peaks/troughs in play and didn't just scream down the mic for 2 hours straight.

Yep, there are a lot since who try and be like him but fail miserably and are just horrendously annoying.

 

[Portmagpies36]

The greatest of all time PERIOD

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

2003 another middle east war was going on and one Friday night at Docklands as a melee was ending;

Arms everywhere,
No sign of Hans Blix.

Edit.: I didn't remember it correctly, but its genius - "There were a lot of arms, but no sign of Hans Blix"

 

[Hopam002]

Sad. RIP

 

[Byrons Firen]

oooh he could own a moment alright

peerless when on song.

 

[rogerjames]

He made watching Afl enjoyable with his unbiased game day calling. Was a shining example to future commentators on how the job should be done. Unfortunately most didnt follow his example. Definitely was the best Afl commentator in my lifetime & I missed him from the moment he retired.

 

[1954]

After enduring the non stop crap of those two clowns Jack Dyer and his garden gnome mate Lou Richards with their continual bagging of anyone or anything that wasn't Victorian, Dennis Cometti was like a breath of fresh air with his unbiased calling and regular humorous quips.

My earliest memory of Dennis was during his call of a game between SA and WA when SA played a bloke name McInerney, and he suggested a player count was required because SA had `Mac' and `Ernie' on the field at the same time.
Those gems just kept coming over the years too, eg when he described a player as sneaking up on his opponent `like a librarian.'

The bloke was the absolute doyen of footy commentators and I doubt we will ever see anyone of his quality again.

RIP Dennis Cometti

 

[Ford Fairlane]

7AFL must be reading this thread

 

[tribey]

Footy’s Richie Benaud, give or take.

A seamless transition from playing (and coaching in Dennis’ case) into broadcasting, and a universal approval rating while synonymous with the game itself.

 

[RossFC]

Always said that was J-Mac in the forward pocket dribbling that through.

 

[Schulzenfest]

13 years later I'll still blurt out "Right angles, Tim!" at any vaguely appropriate moment, nobody except me usually gets the reference but that's showbiz baby

RIP Dennis, the best to ever do it.

 

[Janey]

He had it all. His voice was a pleasure to listen to, he brought the game to life if you were just listening and not watching the game and he had his own unique character and humour without making it all about him. His actual knowledge and commentary of the players and the game was faultless. But he also seemed such a lovely man, who will be missed by all who knew him, not just the footy industry.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Last night someone on one of the radio shows or TV news story, think it was Basil, said Dennis would coach West Perth on a Saturday and call the Sunday WAFL game.

I checked when he coached, 1982-84, and looked up the games played by season on https://waflfootyfacts.net/ and 1983 there were Sunday games every 2nd or 3rd week, none in the other 2 years, as well as Monday games for holidays all 3 years, so whilst he wouldn't have done it too often, it's still an extraordinary thing that he did it. And I suspect there wasn't much whingeing by fans and WAFL coaches about it, given his level of professionalism.

Could you imagine any AFL coach doing that?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Nice tribute for Dennis on AFL 360 last night.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Haha I've never heard this one until I read it tonight. Reckon this could be applied to the SMA.


"....and the attendance today, 82,000, thanks to the Iraqi Information Minister...."

 

[jakey]

Nice tribute for Dennis on AFL 360 last night.

Andrew Dillon commenting at the end there, all the wit and charisma of a fly blown sh!t.

 

[RossFC]

 

[philreich]

Possibly Dennis' only rival for greatest ever commentator would be Clinton Grybas, who died far too young at the age of 32. But Dennis had few peers, and I don't think we'll see another quite as good.

 

[Janey]

Possibly Dennis' only rival for greatest ever commentator would be Clinton Grybas, who died far too young at the age of 32. But Dennis had few peers, and I don't think we'll see another quite as good.

You’re right. I thought the same of Clinton. I used to watch his footy show back then, White Line Fever, so much better than some of the dross we get served up these days. The thing that sticks in my mind is how surprised I was when we saw vision from his funeral and his coffin was draped with a Collingwood flag. In all the time I had watched his show and listened to his football commentary, there was never a hint of bias toward Collingwood from him, you would never have guessed he was such a passionate supporter of theirs. Another sad loss.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I mentioned that the first time I heard Dennis, was him calling Test cricket on ABC radio in the mid to late 70's.

First it was just tests in Perth, then tests around Australia and he then did both radio and TV calls on the ABC. When World Series Cricket ended and Packer got TV rights to all cricket in Oz it was only for metropolitan Oz and the ABC continued to broadcast Test matches in regional and rural Australia.

Bradman told Packer he can exclusively have the cities but ABC would get coverage in the bush.

The ABC with cameras only at one end, so you saw the batsmen faces from one end and their arses from another, broadcast test cricket post World Series Cricket between November 1979 and Boxing Day test 1991, which was mid series against India 1991-92, they just stopped broadcasting in regional and rural Australia.

Dennis called cricket for the ABC between 1972 and 1985 and called over 100 tests. That gets forgotten a lot, because of his long outstanding footy calling career and his calling at 3 Olympics.

So around 70% of Australian's didn't hear Dennis call test cricket between 1979 and 1985.

There was no room for him at 9 in 1986 on their coverage, you had to be an ex test cricket captain or significant player, so he went to 7 and timed his move well, with the VFL expansion in 1987, but had to wait a year, as the VFL sold Broadcom the rights which on sold them to 10, and then 7 got the rights back in 1988 and Dennis moved from calling WAFL games for 7 Perth to V/AFL games for 7 nationally.

Saw this yesterday - Dennis calling Thomo's dismissal in the famous Boxing Day Test for the 1981-82 Ashes series.

 

[philreich]

You’re right. I thought the same of Clinton. I used to watch his footy show back then, White Line Fever, so much better than some of the dross we get served up these days. The thing that sticks in my mind is how surprised I was when we saw vision from his funeral and his coffin was draped with a Collingwood flag. In all the time I had watched his show and listened to his football commentary, there was never a hint of bias toward Collingwood from him, you would never have guessed he was such a passionate supporter of theirs. Another sad loss.

Rex Hunt was devastated after Clinton's passing - I thought those 2 on 3AW were brilliant to listen to in tandem.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

One last one on Dennis.

I have been waiting for the media to give the context of his great line, where Tony Liberatore

Tony Liberatore

Age

60

Ht

163cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

20.1

5star

K

10.5

4star

HB

9.6

5star

M

1.5

2star

T

4.3

5star

No current season stats available

D

10.0

3star

K

5.2

2star

HB

4.8

4star

M

1.0

1star

T

0.0

1star

emerging from a pack with a cut above his eye: “Libba went into the pack optimistically, but came out misty, optically,” but they have refused to do so.

It was a game at the SCG and he was given the job to tag Paul Kelly. I was at the game. Reckon it was 1997, maybe 1998, and Libba was a pain in the arse that day tagging Kelly all day, and punched Kelly, scragged him at stoppages, off the ball, dumped him to the ground in several tackles, with or without the ball.

I reckon it was late in the 3rd quarter, could have been the 4th quarter, that Kelly had enough and in a pack on the outer wing, belted Libba in a groundball pack and there was no way the umpire and cameras could pick it up. Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson

Age

49

Ht

182cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.7

4star

K

9.2

4star

HB

5.5

4star

M

3.3

3star

T

2.0

4star

No current season stats available

D

17.6

5star

K

11.8

5star

HB

5.8

4star

M

3.6

4star

T

2.0

4star

did something similar around 2005.

I watched the replay and Dennis knew what was going on all day and what happened in that pack and didn't dob in Kelly like today's commentators do, wanting to make a soap opera of anything as gentle as a bit of push and shove as if it was a WWE championship belt match.