Dennis Cometti

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Dennis Cometti (born 1949) is a former Australian rules football player and coach for West Perth in the West Australian Football League and Footscray in the Victorian Football League but is best known as a commentator. In a career spanning almost 40 years, his dry humour and smooth voice have become his trademark. He remains the only television broadcaster to have spanned the entire duration of the VFL/AFL national competition (Seven Network, Nine Network, Broadcom).

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[edit] Early career

He commenced his media career as radio announcer in Perth, Western Australia 1968 as a top 40 disc jockey at radio station 6KY. In the following 5 years he worked as an announcer on 6PM, 3DB and 6PR. He called his first sporting event in 1972. In 1973 he joined the ABC and made his name nationally and internationally calling cricket as a 24 year old alongside the legendary Alan McGilvray. Although groomed for McGilvray's position Cometti's devotion to Australian rules football took him in another direction. In 1986 he joined Channel 7 Perth to broadcast Australian rules. In the summer of 1986 he also began calling the first of 7 seasons of Test and One Day International cricket on Kerry Packer's Sydney radio flagship 2UE (alongside Richie Benaud, Tony Greig, Henry Blofeld and others) but his move from the ABC made it clear he had committed himself to football.

[edit] Television career

[edit] Seven Network 1986-2001

In 1986 his surprise move to the Seven Network coincided with the formation of the West Coast Eagles in the VFL but because of a bitter battle over television broadcast rights (that excluded the 7 Network) Cometti broadcast the first season of the expanded VFL competition on independent broadcaster Broadcom. In 1988 when the 7 Network regained the VFL television rights Cometti immediately became the highest profile commentator of VFL/AFL matches (based in Western Australia where he presented the evening news sports segment). He stayed with Seven until 2001, when they lost the rights to broadcast AFL matches.

In the late 1990s, he was among those to have been sent up by impersonator Andrew Startin on Live And Kicking. Actor Eric Bana was another to 'do' Cometti.

During his career with the station, he called eight AFL Grand Finals. He also commentated at the Summer Olympics swimming competitions in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000. Cometti has broadcast more Australian Olympic Gold Medals than any other commentator of the television era.

[edit] Move to Nine Network (2002-2006)

Cometti switched to the Nine Network in 2002 and alongside Eddie McGuire, Dermott Brereton and Garry Lyon has become one of the channel's leading Australian rules football callers. During those 5 years he was voted AFMA (Australian Football Media Association) television broadcaster of the year 5 times. In 2006 he was awarded the Alf Potter Award as the games foremost media personality. In a Melbourne newspaper Herald Sun annual poll he recorded increasing record percentages for fan popularity over his 5 years with Channel Nine. In 2006 48% of the papers readers named Cometti as their favourite commentator. A similar poll in South Australia by the Adelaide Advertiser put the number at 62%. In both cases his nearest rival was in single figures. Occasionally while at Nine, he returned to cricket commentary and in 2003/04 called an Australia A game.

His commentary had also been featured in video games such as AFL Live 2004, 05 and 06, AFL Trivia 2006 and AFL Premiership 2005.

[edit] Return to Seven (2007-)

On December 8, 2006 it was announced that Cometti has signed with the Seven Network in a move that will see him team up with Bruce McAvaney to call AFL from 2007. [1]


Cometti currently resides in the Perth Suburb of Yokine.

[edit] Cometti-isms

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Fans of Dennis Cometti's dry commentary style often refer to his quirks and clever uses of puns as cometti-isms. In 2003 he was challenged each week by breakfast DJs on Perth radio station 96FM to seamlessly incorporate a line from a song into his commentary, such as "like a virgin, touched for the very first time".

"Centimetre perfect" is perhaps his most used and most famous line, and was the title of a book he wrote in 2004.

Other quoted cometti-isms include:

  • "That's ambitious"
  • "Like a cork in the ocean"
  • "....question of accuracy"
  • "Metres in the clear"
  • "You get the feeling at the present time ..."
  • "Kicks into a nest of Eagles"
  • "That's not one for the time capsule"
  • "What was he thinking........"
  • "What would you put that down too... over enthusiasm"
  • "Bit of quick thinking in heavy traffic."
  • "Tantalisingly close"
  • "You've got the feeling that this game is going to come down to the last man standing"
  • "Gun barrel straight"
  • "Speed reading, til they hit a bookmark"

[edit] References to specific people and clubs

  • "Shaun (McManus) goes back to collect the ball, a free kick, and several teeth."
  • "It's not easy being Green"
  • "Injuries and a careless case of Croad rage might leave the Dockers playing catch-up . . . again"
  • "The Bunsen burner's being applied to Danny Frawley`s posterior. He's in the hot seat."
  • "The Tiger fans will beat the traffic home tonight."
  • "Richardson's play is red-hot, but his goal-kicking is at room temperature."
  • "Libba went into the pack optimistically, but came out misty, optically" (Liberatore had blood from a cut above the eye.)
  • "Gaspar, the unfriendly post." (Gaspar's shot at goal had hit the goal post)
  • "Scotty Cummings alone in the square, jumping up and down and waving his arms like they're playing My Sharona"
  • "A couple of big touches from Clive (Waterhouse), who was battling up until about 5 minutes ago, in danger of becoming Clive Waterboy."
  • "(Cameron) Ling's running off the ground a little bit gingerly"
  • "The Hawks play modern football, with 60's haircuts.....they're my kind of team."
  • "The Magpies ought to be kicking themselves right now, but with their luck, they'd probably miss."
  • "(Daniel) Metropolis, kicking from the city end"
  • "(Jeff) Farmer may have an injury to his calf........hmmm, a farmer with a calf problem."
  • "Barlow to Bateman. The Hawks are attacking alphabetically..."
  • "Adem Yze, terrific footballer, terrible Scrabble hand."
  • "Turns out that light at the end of the tunnel I mentioned earlier was only the 5:00 Frankston" (train that runs from the MCG)
  • "And the umpire says "Hey, you, get off of McLeod"
  • "If loving Fraser Gehrig is wrong, then I don't want to be right"
  • “He has less room than Ralph Fiennes in an airplane bathroom.”

[edit] External links

[edit] References

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