The AFL community is in mourning on the eve of the 2026 season following the passing of beloved broadcaster Dennis Cometti at age 76.
Geraldton-born Cometti spent 17 years involved in club football as a player and coach, scaling to the heights of the West Australian Football League with a 63-goal season in 1968 as a forward under the tutelage of AFL legend Graham 'Polly' Farmer.
His dulcet tones and silky smooth persona led him into a part-time media career at the age of just 18, when he began as a DJ and announcer at Perth radio station 6KY.
Cometti began commentating football in 1971, filling in for an absentee to cover a state football match between Western Australia and Victoria at the Subiaco Oval, and his natural talent for sports broadcasting catapulted him into a 13-year career on ABC radio, where he at age 23 became the youngest man at the time to commentate Test cricket in Australia.
It was throughout a 30-year TV career commentating AFL football for the Seven and Nine networks from 1986 to 2016 where he became a staple of football television around the country, eventually developing a highlights reel of well-timed and thoughtful pun-ditry that became affectionately known as 'Comettisms'.
Cometti also etched some of his most iconic calls into broadcasting history at three Summer Olympic games from 1992 to 2000, including Kieren Perkins' famous 1500m freestyle win in 1996 and the Aussies winning the 4x100m freestyle relay in world record time in Sydney.
His final TV appearance was the Western Bulldogs' drought-breaking Premiership win over the Sydney Swans in 2016, though he continued to cover AFL games in Perth for radio including Triple M, bowing out by commentating the 2021 AFL Grand Final with his son Mark producing stats for the coverage.
“He just had a voice that made you enjoy football,” former Demons player and Seven presenter David Schwarz said on Wednesday.
“Dennis was a voice for our game for more than 50 years, and he captured the moment perfectly every time and made it fun along the way,” AFL Commission Chair Richard Goyder added.
“From his start at the ABC, with a significant career there too as a high-quality cricket caller for Test matches in the 1970s, footy was the beneficiary for so long with his incredible skills.
"He was a master of calling everything – cricket, the Olympics, swimming and anything he turned his hand too – but footy was lucky to have him the longest for his greatest work.
“It must also be remembered too that Dennis was a fine player at league level for West Perth in the WAFL before his broadcast career took off, and also then coached the club at senior level.
"He stands rightly in the Hall of Fame as one of the greatest media contributors in our history and we send our deepest condolences to his family and countless friends."
Seven announced in mid-February that a documentary on the life and career of Cometti, to be narrated by Bruce McAvaney, will be aired later this year.