Dennis Cometti

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Dennis Cometti bigraphy, stories - Australian rules football commentator

Dennis Cometti : biography

26 March 1949 –

Dennis Cometti (born 26 March 1949) is a former Australian rules football player and coach who 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 and Broadcom).

Personal life

Cometti was born in Geraldton. He has a son who is a professional wrestler performing under the name Mark Silvahttp://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/oh-boy-a-bigger-cometti-to-wrestle-with/story-fn7x8me2-1226056050448

Commentary career

Seven Network

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, as main sports anchor for Seven News in Perth, when they lost the rights to broadcast AFL matches. He has since been succeeded by Basil Zempilas, who still reads the sport news on Seven News to this day.

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 initial time 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.

With Seven regaining the rights to broadcast AFL games starting from 2007, on 8 December 2006 it was announced that Cometti re-signed with the Seven Network to "call" games alongside Bruce McAvaney.

In addition, Cometti presents a special weekly segment during the sport report in the evening news. By season’s end (2007) he had been voted Television Caller of the Year by the Australian Football Media Association for the sixth consecutive time. He followed up for his seventh award in 2008. He was also voted FHM Magazine’s Commentator of the Year for 2008. As of September 2011 Cometti’s total of AFMA Television Caller of the Year awards had risen to 9 and his total of AFL Grand Finals on the Seven Network to eleven.

In 2008 Cometti joined Melbourne radio station 3AW to broadcast one AFL match per round (almost always Saturday afternoon) and host a 2 hour talkback preview prior to that game.

In 2009, he re-joined The West Australian newspaper to write a fortnightly column and weekly blogs.

Cometti currently resides in the Perth suburb of Yokine in the same house he spent his childhood. Except for his time in Melbourne, he has lived in the same house all of his life.

Despite speculation of his retirement at the end of the 2011 season, Cometti is contracted to call games for Channel 7 and Triple M during the 2012, 2013 and 2014 AFL seasons.

Nine Network

Cometti switched to the Nine Network in 2002 and alongside Eddie McGuire, Dermott Brereton and Garry Lyon became 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 Brown Award as the games foremost media personality for awareness of the game. 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 caller. 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. As at Seven, he read the sports report on the weeknight National Nine News in Perth.