His commentary has become a soundtrack to many of the game’s famous moments.

“He came up behind him like a librarian” was how Cometti described Heath Shaw’s chase and smother on an unsuspecting Nick Riewoldt, which denied the St Kilda forward a certain goal early in the 2010 grand final replay.

His exclamation of the “the Cat is still on the back” to mark Geelong forward Tom Hawkins’ after-the-siren goal to sink Hawthorn remains a fond memory for many Cats supporters after their team’s ninth win in a row over their 2008 grand final conquerors.

Earlier in that game, he quipped that Hawthorn’s Matthew Suckling had “allowed two Geelong players to collide numerically”, in a reference to Taylor Hunt and Steve Johnson, wearing numbers 19 and 20, to crash into each other after an ill-fated attempt to tackle.

His description of the moment just before Tom Boyd’s long bomb landed in the goal square captured the suspense at the MCG and in pubs and lounge rooms around the country in the Western Bulldogs’ drought-breaking premiership in 2016.

“How will it bounce? The stadium holds its breath. It’s a goal. And the western suburbs erupt.”

That was his last game as a TV commentator, though he continued calling games in Western Australia for Triple M until the 2021 grand final in Perth.

Cometti called 51 seasons of football across three networks, mainly with Seven and Nine but also for a year with the ABC when they had the rights to the then VFL in 1987.

Though better known for his work in football, Cometti also commentated on cricket with the great Alan McGilvray on the ABC for 13 years, describing his first Test in 1973 aged 23 – the youngest in the public broadcaster’s history. He was part of Seven’s team for the 1997 series in South Africa.

A talented footballer, Cometti played 40 games for West Perth in the WAFL and was on Footscray’s list in 1971 but did not play a senior match. He coached West Perth for three seasons, from 1982-84 for finishes of third, sixth and sixth.

With Andrew Wu

More to come