Legendary caller Bruce McAvaney retires from AFL commentary

Legendary commentaror Bruce McAvaney has called his last AFL game. He explains the reason behind his decision, and what’s next.

Legendary broadcaster Bruce McAvaney has called his last AFL match, revealing he won’t be a part of Channel 7’s footy calling team this season.

But the 67-year-old won’t be lost to the network that has played such a huge part in his life as he will continue to lead the station’s horse racing and Olympics coverage.

In a surprise move that followed post-season discussions with his wife Anne and network boss Lewis Martin, McAvaney told the Herald Sun it was the right time to scale back some of his commitments, especially since he had great faith in Seven’s 2021 football team.

“I was confident I could continue on (calling) strongly, but I just felt it was the right time for me,” McAvaney said.

“I felt like I had some petrol left in the tank. Isn’t that a nice way to feel!”

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McAvaney said the decision to stop calling AFL matches came as a result of some deep thinking following one of the most challenging seasons in the game’s history.

“It might have been a walk on the beach with Annie and the dog (where he reached the decision) … it might have just been the combination of a few weeks of slowing down (late last year), having a think and saying to myself, ‘Where do I want to be in terms of a well-rounded life in two or three years?’.

Bruce McAvaney has retired from the AFL commentary box.

“I am going to be 68 this year … it was an opportune time to have a talk to my wife Annie, and to ‘Lewy’ (Martin) and it was about, ‘How are we going to navigate the next few years?’.

“Something had to give.

“I realised I wanted to keep working. I didn’t want to retire, that’s far from my mind. But I just didn’t think I was in a position to continue to do as much as I was doing.”

McAvaney stressed the decision – one of the hardest in his four-and-a-half decades in sports broadcasting – was his alone, and that it had nothing to do with his health.

“None of this relates to any health problems – that is going well. I have had all my normal tests and everything is coming back very positively,” said McAvaney, who had a health scare in 2017 when diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia.

Channel 7 commentators Hamish McLachlan Bruce McAvaney and Brian Taylor.

Importantly, he wanted to stop calling while he still felt he was near the top of his game, heeding the advice of his former calling partner and good friend Dennis Cometti who always said a “soft landing” was always better than the alternative.

“Bless Dennis’s heart, he said to me when he ‘retired’ – and I say that in inverted commas, because he is still doing a lot – ‘Bruce, I have had a soft landing’,” McAvaney said.

“That’s what I am attempting to do – to have a soft landing.

“My nightmare would be to go on for too long and to have had a bad ending.

“I felt like, ‘OK, this is not a retirement and it is not the end’.

“I have hopefully got Tokyo (with the Olympic Games later this year) and beyond.”

Then McAvaney added with a laugh: “We haven’t discussed Brisbane 2032 yet.”

Bruce McAvaney and his wife Annie at home in Adelaide. Picture: Alex Coppel

He had no idea leading into last year’s historic Grand Final between Richmond and Geelong that it would be his last match as an AFL caller.

“When I walked out of the Gabba that night, BT (Brian Taylor) and I went and had a drink back at the hotel. We had a chat and a laugh. This was the furthest thing from my mind.”

“I feel like I am going out with something still to offer.

“I always thought I wouldn’t want to be tapped on the shoulder.”

McAvaney stepped away from the network’s then Australian Open coverage in 2017 in an effort to prolong his career.

Then he handed over the Brownlow Medal hosting to Hamish McLachlan in 2019.

He hopes that by giving up calling AFL games, he can continue to work for a number of years to come.

He will “definitely” watch the AFL’s Round 1 season-opener between Richmond and Carlton on March 18 – with his wife at their Adelaide home.

“It’s not going to be easy and nothing is when you give up something you love,” he said. “And that’s what I am doing, giving up something I love.

“It was a difficult decision … and there has been a bit of grieving or whatever it might be, but I still know I am doing the right thing.”

McAvaney has nothing but praise for the Seven network football team across the decades he has been involved and says the current group including Taylor, McLachlan, James Brayshaw, Luke Darcy, Wayne Carey and Daisy Pearce will carry on their exceptional work.

“Our (football team) is really good nick,” he said.

“All of the guys and the women I have worked with – on air and off air – have been a part of a beautiful team.

“That’s the thing I am going to miss.

“I had a wonderful relationship with Dennis (Cometti) … it was a privilege to spend those nights with him in the box.

“And Brian (Taylor) has come along and I have really enjoyed working with him over the last four or five years. It has really given me a lift again.”

Originally published as Legendary caller Bruce McAvaney retires from AFL commentary