Dennis Cometti: My year went to the Dogs and I couldn’t be happier
WHEN the Bulldogs won the 2016 flag it delighted many but, as Dennis Cometti writes, it was a satisfying bookend to his career.
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WHAT did I do in 2016? Well, I retired and so far I’ve found that retiring is extremely tiring.
People think that because you’ve retired, you have lots of time with nothing to do. Let me tell you, it’s not true.
In fact, since the final siren of the AFL Grand Final, I’ve had to acquire the skills of a crack telephonist. My phone has run as hot as the Bulldogs in the final quarter.
Let me make this perfectly clear — my retirement is selective. I’ve simply retired from travel.
I realise a public declaration like that runs the risk of me getting zero phone calls and that by next Wednesday I’ll be craving a ring from someone, anyone, even a sun-crazed Indian telemarketer in Ahmedabad. But so be it.
The past 12 months have been an extraordinary time for me but to fully understand them, we need to go all the way back to September 1970. My wife Velia and I had just married and were driving across the Nullarbor to Melbourne.
I was on my way to start work at radio station 3DB and sign on for the Footscray Football Club, now, as everybody knows, the Western Bulldogs.
It was our first big adventure but we discovered that driving across Australia is no walk in the park. At that time more than 300 kilometres of the road were still unsealed.
Anyway, we were in the middle of nowhere on our way to Kimba (best known as the home town of Geelong champion Corey Enright … although not at the time) and it was pitch black.
The radio had long since gone quiet. Try as we might, we got nothing but static; there was not even the hint of a station.
Then suddenly, on what surely had to be one last attempt, Vee found a strong signal, a perfect, crystal clear signal, on a band surrounded by nothing. It was an act of sheer genius!
In fact, from a career containing many highlights (and discounting the kids Ricki and Mark) that moment may still rank as her finest, because suddenly, out of the darkness, came the unmistakeable sound of a football match.
Not only that, the radio station she had somehow found was 3DB and the game featured Footscray. The Bulldogs were playing Melbourne in the 1970 VFL night Grand Final, a consolation series for teams that missed the real finals.
We were gobsmacked. All we managed were the last 10 minutes but it was time enough to hear the Bulldogs get home by two points. Then, with the match over, the freak of nature ended and the eerie silence returned.
J.K Rowling was only a toddler in 1970 but I bet such a strange happening would have tweaked her interest even then.
Fast forward to February 2016 and I’m sitting doing my pre-season AFL predictions for various publications. I said to Velia: “The Western Bulldogs have got a great young list. Wouldn’t it be funny if they win the premiership in my last year? Remember that game we heard back in 1970? People don’t count that one but we do. It’d be like bookends if they won.”
She swears she didn’t hear me say any of that and it’s disappointing but probably true. Since 1970, and perhaps inspired by the events of that night, she has since discovered podcasts and earplugs.
Of course it’s history now that the Bulldogs won the premiership this year, so I did get my bookends. What’s more, I think the Dogs are one of only four teams, with GWS, the Eagles and Sydney, who can win it in 2017.
And I can’t wait for it to start again. Dare I say it, and this is not an invitation, ring in the New Year!
Dennis Cometti retired from AFL commentary after this year’s Grand Final.
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