Dennis Cometti had the audience hanging on every word, as was so often the case, even if he was not certain he should be commanding the respect he was receiving from the fans.
The acclaimed broadcaster, who has died in Perth aged 76, was on stage at Melbourne’s iconic Corner Hotel, a few torpedo punts down Swan St from the MCG.
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Superstars Mick Jagger and Billy Joel, bands as renowned as Pink Floyd and every decent Aussie artist you can think of have graced the stage in the pub near Richmond station.
So has Cometti, the former WAFL footballer and Perth DJ come Hall of Fame broadcaster whose golden voice is associated with some of Australian sports most iconic moments.
On a wintry night in 2015, Cometti took his place alongside host Francis Leach and Aussie musician Dave Graney for the Presentation Night, a chat centred on music and sport.
The West Aussie, whose voice was a staple in lounge rooms around the country when calling the footy or the swimming at the Olympics, was not certain why he had been invited.
The humility, as was abundantly clear in the tributes to him from around Australia when news of his death after an illness broke, has always been a feature of a kind and popular man.
It soon became apparent why he was there. In a conversation where the trio waxed lyrical about musical influences and the icons who shaped their careers, Cometti held his own.
Arriving on stage to Santana’s The Game Of Love, he talked about his brief career with West Perth in a self-deprecating fashion, too self-deprecating given he booted 63 goals in 1968 under AFL legend Polly Farmer.
Dillon pays tribute to Dennis Cometti | 00:48
A release of Centimetre Perfect:The Classic Commentary in 2004 that detailed the brilliant “Cometti-isms” that featured in his broadcasting includes Farmer’s assessment of his talent.
“Dennis had just turned 19 and was well over six foot with the ability and agility of a co-ordinated rover. We thought we had a champion,” Farmer said.
He was listed by Footscray to play under Ted “Mr Football” Whitten in the VFL in 1971 but injuries and commitments as a fledgling DJ in Perth precluded him from a longer career.
“I loved my time at the Bulldogs, but there was no hope of me playing league footy because I would be leaving the club about 6.30pm to go to work – to do the radio,” he told the Herald Sun in 2020 when inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
“I was happy to have a kick and really enjoyed it, but I would pass Ted Whitten, who was the coach at the time, and he would just laugh at me because I was going to work as he would be heading out to take the team training.”
But the early end to his footy career helped make Cometti, who touched on his love of music that night and how it helped him become an Australian legend behind the microphone.
He would pipe in the Top 40 from Los Angeles and was inspired by Californian pop and rock. So much so that he supported and produced an album for an American band Graney details as The McKennas. He even has an Aussie punk band named in his honour and scarcely a year went by during his heyday when a racehorse debuted with a “Cometti-ism” as its name.
Cometti may have felt out of his comfort zone at The Corner but he delivered in style.
It was engaging and humorous and Cometti did his best to make everyone feel at home.
A month later Cometti called Hawthorn’s hat-trick down the road and retired from television calling a year later after perfectly describing the emotion as the Western Bulldogs ended the longest of droughts.
As Tom Boyd’s match-winner from the square headed towards goal, Cometti declared; “A stadium holds its breath”.
It was the perfect finish to a Hall of Fame career hailed by AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon on Wednesday.
“Dennis’ call of that amazing game was simply perfect but every fan of a certain age has their own catchphrase that jumps straight to the tongue, whether it’s ’cork in the ocean’, ‘centimetre perfect’ or Buddy sprinting down the wing at the MCG,” Dillon said.
“We are privileged that so much of his greatest work calling our biggest games is easily available for all fans, and thank you Dennis for illuminating footy and your contribution across the country to bring that excitement into homes.”
THE BEST KIND OF GOLD
Cometti was born in Geraldton, a town about four hours north of Perth and home of iconic Western Australian figures including Edith Cowan, the first Australian woman to serve in parliament, state premiers John Willcock and Geoff Gallop and footballers including Chris Mainwaring and ex-Eagle and current Saint Liam Ryan.
Working at a local station in Perth, he received a break when volunteering to provide analysis for a Melbourne station during a State of Origin game between the Vics and WA.
It helped that he had played footy with many of the Sandgropers. But it was also clear he was a talent capable of going far further given his expertise, enthusiasm, intellect and vast array of interests. And so it proved.
He called cricket for a decade before switching to footy and was outstanding when calling the swimming, with his tributes to golden girl Susie O’Neill and Kieran Perkins memorable.
O’Neill, who earned the nickname Madame Butterfly, described his description that she had “the heart of a lion in the ‘heart of Dixie’” as the favourite line from her storeyed career.
As Perkins powered to gold in an Atlanta Olympics in 1996 that was beset by tension and tragedy, Cometti described the Aussie’s triumph as “rare gold, the best kind of gold”.
He broadcast for the ABC and then for Channel 7, where viewers on the east coast were properly introduced to Cometti as he called the Eagles home games at Subiaco Oval.
Do yourself a favour. Go back to the 1989 grand final between Hawthorn and Geelong, which is widely considered the best decider ever, and listen to the call. Cometti is succinct and superb.
In the early 2000s he was the lead caller for the Nine Network before joining fellow icon Bruce McAvaney at Channel 7. They had been rival callers but became firm friends, the mutual respect for each other clear.
FOOTY AS A RELIGION
Retiring AFL chairman Richard Goyder praised Cometti for being “the voice of our game for more than 50 years” who “made it fun along the way”.
“He was a master of calling everything – cricket, the Olympics, swimming and anything he turned his hand to – but footy was lucky to have him the longest for his greatest work,” he said.
When news broke in Perth on Wednesday, broadcasters who had the fortune of working alongside or meeting the legend were in tears as they announced his death to listeners.
Dennis would have been touched but also somewhat amused, one suspects, and it was a reminder of the brilliant manner with which he called Brownlow Medallist Tony Liberatore who once entered “a pack optimistically and emerged misty optically”.
The tears shed on Wednesday by those who knew him are not a surprise. He had an impact.
Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton said there “are no exaggerations about how nice a man he was”. Eddie McGuire said “it was just a joy to work with him”.
Mick Malthouse, who coached the Eagles to two flags in 1992 and 1994 before his success in Collingwood in 2010, said “he was everyone’s favourite (and) I don’t think you could say any better.”
WA Premier Roger Cook was among those to salute “an icon of sport in Western Australia and, of course, a legend of the AFL”.
“He has called footy for as long as I can remember and I even remember watching him on a black and white telly,” Cook said.
“He’s been part of all our lives. He was responsible for coining some of the most iconic phases in football commentary and he’ll be dearly missed.”
A colleague based in the Perth bureau of The Australian newspaper lauded his generosity and patience in helping explain the subtleties of footy, the landscape in the west, what made the game so great and why it was considered a religion.
Renowned Perth journalist Mark Duffield said it was a “very sad day for football and sport” when offering his condolences to the Cometti family.
“Certainly the best commentator it was ever my privilege and pleasure to listen to covering any sport he chose to commentate on, but particularly footy,” he said on SEN.
“He had the ability to capture the moment, to make it clever, to make it funny, to capture the tempo of the game and to capture the moment in the game. He was a terrific person.”
The last time this writer saw Cometti was at the Gloucester Park harness racing – he and McAvaney share another trait in that calling the trots helped shape them – a few years back.
He was at home with the superstars of sport as he was having a chat with a fan having a punt and he felt fortunate to have been able to bring its joy to so many Australians.
“I have been very lucky. Lucky to have been born into sport and into a sporting family and it has been terrific to have sport as a companion my whole life,” he said.
To the end, Cometti remained centimetre perfect. As always.
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