Dennis Cometti had already built a brilliant broadcasting career by the early 2000s.
But one moment changed everything.
A last-minute twist in Channel Nine's commentary plans placed him on the biggest
stage in football and helped transform one of the game's most respected callers into its prime-time star.
That sliding doors moment came in 2002.
Much has been said following the passing of the late, great Dennis Cometti.
The tributes have rightly celebrated the great man.
The understated humour. The perfectly timed one-liners that made him one of the most distinctive voices the game has known.
But the events of 2002 helped elevate him from one of football's finest callers to
something even bigger.
The voice of Friday night/prime-time football.
THE PERTH CALLER
By the time the AFL rights changed hands at the end of 2001, Dennis Cometti was
already widely respected as one of the finest callers in the game.
He had called grand finals. The 1989 epic between Hawthorn and Geelong remains
one of the most celebrated broadcasts in football history.
He had also called some of the most iconic Olympic gold medals in the pool for Channel Seven – Perkins, O'Neill and Thorpe in the 4x100 freestyle relay just to name a few.
But within Seven's commentary hierarchy, Cometti was rarely positioned as the
headline act.
Bruce McAvaney was the network's marquee caller, often paired with Ian Robertson
on the biggest fixtures.
Alongside them were other experienced voices including Sandy Roberts, Drew Morphett and Peter Landy to name a few.
Cometti, more often than not, was the Perth caller.
He called games superbly, but they were frequently the off-Broadway fixtures.
Looking back through the archives, he did not call a final in Seven's farewell season with the rights in 2001.
Even the famous Cometti-isms that would later become part of football folklore were not always encouraged.
Seven's coverage at the time preferred a more traditional, straight-laced style of commentary.
Then came Channel Nine.
THE SLIDING DOORS MOMENT
When Nine secured the AFL broadcast rights for the 2002 to 2006 period, Dennis
Cometti was one of the network's prized recruits.
But even then, the plan was not necessarily for him to be the lead voice of the
coverage.
Veteran broadcaster Tim Lane had initially been slated to call Friday night football alongside Eddie McGuire.
"That was the deal," Lane told Zero Hanger.
"I was going to be doing the Friday night."
But circumstances changed.
Lane had negotiated conditions around McGuire calling Collingwood games and when those circumstances shifted, he faced a decision.
"Things changed at Nine and I had to make a decision as to whether I was going to proceed or not," Lane said.
"I chose not to."
That decision left a vacancy on Nine's Friday night team.
Dennis Cometti was ready.
"I had heard he was a bit disappointed he hadn't got that role initially," Lane said.
"But it came to him and it worked out brilliantly for him, for Nine and for footy."
Despite both emerging from the ABC commentary system in the 1970s, Lane said their paths rarely crossed in the commentary box.
"In fact I think I only ever broadcast one game with him," Lane said.
"It was a State of Origin match for the ABC in the early 1980s. I might have done one or two pre-season games with Nine in 2002, but that would have been about it.
"The stars just never aligned."
McGuire remembers the moment well.
"We'd announced the line-up for AFL on Nine and I'd actually suggested Tim Lane
would be the caller," McGuire told Zero Hanger.
"Then Tim decided he felt there was a conflict of interest with me calling Collingwood games. So that all happened and we said, well wouldn't it be great if we could get
Dennis?
"We thought he was just a wonderful caller. He'd obviously been a star at Seven, but
he'd often been the Perth caller. We wanted him Friday night."
It would prove to be one of the most significant broadcasting decisions of the era.
THURSDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
The first Friday night blockbuster of the Nine era was actually on a Thursday.
Round 1, 2002, Collingwood versus Richmond at the MCG. Easter Thursday.
This was the first proper game of Channel Nine's new AFL era and the network had turned the broadcast into a spectacle.
Bigger graphics. More cameras. A sense that football television was about to be done differently.
Inside the commentary box there was already a crowd.
"There were probably 25 people standing behind the commentary box just to watch
Dennis and I call the game," McGuire recalled.
The broadcast opened. The build-up finished. The ball was about to be bounced.
Then McGuire turned to the man beside him.
"And now, to open AFL on Nine, Dennis Cometti."
Cometti called the first bounce of Nine's football era.
It felt like a small moment at the time.
Looking back, it feels like the beginning of something much bigger.
Channel Seven knew Dennis Cometti was brilliant.
Channel Nine made him the star of the show.
The famous Cometti-isms were suddenly encouraged rather than restrained.
Soon they were everywhere across Friday night football.
"Centimetre perfect."
"Like a cork in the ocean."
One moment in particular captured the new freedom Cometti seemed to have
found on Nine.
In just the second week of Nine's Friday night era, Richmond's Darren Gaspar pushed a kick toward goal during their Round 2 clash against Essendon.
Cometti's verdict was instant.
"Gaspar, the unfriendly post."
Inside the commentary box the reaction was immediate laughter.
On the broadcast it felt effortless, another perfectly timed aside delivered without missing the rhythm of the call.
It quickly became one of the most quoted lines of the era.
There were iconic moments too that helped define that period of football.
Wayne Carey lining up for the Crows against North Melbourne for the first time after the infamous affair, confronting both Anthony Stevens and Glenn Archer.
McGuire said the broadcast team leaned into the theatre of that moment.
"We called it almost like a wrestling match," he said.
"Dennis loved wrestling and he understood the drama of the moment. We treated it like a real showdown and he captured it perfectly."
Jason McCartney's emotional comeback game after surviving the Bali bombings is arguably the most memorable and significant.
McGuire deliberately kept some details of that moment from Cometti before the broadcast.
"I didn't tell Dennis everything because I wanted his call to be completely natural," he
said.
"And he just called it beautifully."
And who could forget Cometti's call during Nick Riewoldt's courageous mark against Sydney in 2004.
"Riewoldt! Remarkable!"
Along with prime time Friday night, Cometti would also call the Sunday 1pm game
for Nine, including the chaos of Sirengate between St Kilda and Fremantle in 2006.
Players did not realise the game was still alive. The umpires scrambled to restore
order. The crowd was bewildered.
And Cometti was there narrating every strange second of it.
It seemed most unforgettable moments of that era had Dennis Cometti's voice
attached to them.
Because of his call-up to Friday nights on Nine, he cemented himself as the voice of
the game.
THE VOICE OF FOOTBALL
Lane says Cometti's rise during the early 2000s was no surprise to those who had
followed his career closely.
"He was outstanding," Lane said.
"I remember watching the replay of the 1997 Grand Final and being struck by how he
lifted the call when the game demanded it.
"He had other gears. He could take it up a couple of notches when it really counted
and give a big game a real sense of drama."
When the Friday night opportunity arrived at Channel Nine, Lane believes Cometti
was ready.
"He was very keen to do it and he did a fantastic job," Lane said.
"His star just continued to rise and rise and rise."
Despite holding the rights to the AFL for five years, Channel Nine did not broadcast
finals during its time as a football broadcaster after Channel Ten secured them in the
rights deal.
But the absence of finals did little to diminish Cometti's growing status.
During those years he became a national household name, beyond his native
Western Australia.
Quote books dedicated to his commentary appeared in shops. Fans repeated his
lines long after the final siren.
Anyone who picked up a PlayStation controller and played AFL Live 2004 heard his voice calling the action, there's even a Facebook page devoted to it.
By the time Nine's brief stint broadcasting football finished in 2006, Cometti was
cemented in prime time football.
And according to McGuire, Cometti himself recognised how significant that period
had been.
"When the rights went back to Seven he wrote a note thanking the producers,"
McGuire said.
"He said Friday night football on Nine had changed his career and the recognition of
him as a brilliant caller."
Channel Seven regained the AFL rights in 2007, Cometti returned as one of the biggest names in the game, forming the famous partnership with Bruce McAvaney that defined the next era of football broadcasting.
But the transformation had already taken place.
Channel Seven knew Dennis Cometti was brilliant.
Channel Nine made him a star.
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