The greatest VFL and AFL footy commentators to call the game
REMEMBER The Captain and the Major, Louie the Lip, the Bearded Burbler? They brought the game alive on radio and television and coined some of footy’s most memorable nicknames.
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THERE are more footy callers than ever these days.
But how do they stack up to the best from yesteryear?
These voices are long gone from the commentary box but not forgotten.
BEST & WORST OF RD 22 COMMENTARY
JACK DYER AND IAN MAJOR
The Captain and the Major were one of Melbourne’s most popular radio footy commentary teams for two decades.
Jack Dyer was already a media veteran through his column in the Truth newspaper, his football calls with Lou Richards on 3XY, and later at 3DB, and his association with HSV-7.
At Seven, he called early televised matches with Lou Richards and Bob Davis.
The three teamed up for the much loved League Teams — an excuse for almost non-stop jokes as much as a program announcing the football sides for the weekend’s matches — and joined Richards and Davis on Sundays on the World of Sport football panel to decide the previous afternoon’s results.
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Dyer’s delivery, straight out of the rough-and-tumble backstreets of Richmond, contrasted with Ian Major’s smooth, professional announcing style.
Major began broadcasting football games for 3XY in 1966, but he switched to 3KZ for season 1970, where he and Dyer joined forces as the Captain and the Major.
Major’s catchcry before ad breaks, “3KZ issssss football”, is still well remembered, and was “borrowed” by Rex Hunt on 3AW in later years.
Dyer had an occasional habit of mangling the language ever so slightly. Footy fans still remember his description of Richmond big man Mark Lee. “””Mark Lee’s long arms reached up like testicles,” he once said.
The pair remained at 3KZ together until 1991, their double act popular enough over the years for 3KZ to issue LPs of their VFL grand final broadcasts.
TONY CHARLTON
Like the best football commentators, Tony Charlton adapted his skill behind the microphone to a vast range of sports.
Charlton, the son of ABC Radio announcer Conrad Charlton, was hand-picked as Norman Banks’ junior partner at 3AW when Banks crossed from 3KZ in 1952.
He moved to 3KZ, then 3UZ, where he presented sports and football programs, before joining GTV-9 and playing a major part in its coverage of the 1956 Olympics.
By the late 1950s, he moved to HSV-7 for the first televised VFL matches, but was lured back to GTV-9 in the early ‘60s to lead its VFL coverage. He was also the host of programs including The Tony Charlton Football Show, a Sunday afternoon review of the weekend’s matches.
In all, he called 12 VFL grand finals in a distinguished commentary career that included covering three Olympics and two Commonwealth Games, Davis Cup tennis and Jack Brabham’s 1966 Formula One world championship win at the French Grand Prix.
Charlton was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 2011.
NORMAN BANKS
The legend of talkback radio at 3AW in the 1960s was a pioneer of radio football commentary in the 1930s with 3KZ.
He broadcast at some risk of persona; injury early on, famously calling his first match at Princes Park from the top of a ladder.
Banks was a footy caller and leading announcer at 3KZ for more than 20 years, when he asked station management if he could broadcast the 1952 Olympic Games from Helsinki.
He was denied the opportunity, and was picked up for the task by 3UZ. It was only a short-term job, though, and within days of his resignation agreed to join 3AW immediately after the games, broadcasting the station’s first VFL match.
He was the voice of 3AW’s football coverage and a weekday announcer for decades.
He remained until his retirement as an announcer in 1978, his VFL commentary curtailed prematurely by two accidents that robbed him of much of his vision.
LOU RICHARDS AND PETER LANDY
Like Dyer and Major, Peter Landy and Lou Richards came at the task from different directions, but together they made a great team in the commentary box for HSV-7 during the 1970s and ‘80s.
Like Dyer, Louie the Lip had fingers in many media pies even before his retirement from footy.
The plucky Collingwood rover had columns in The Argus and the Sun News-Pictorial and was a footy caller at 3XY following his retirement in 1955, later joining 3DB.
Lou had a long career with HSV-7 in the commentary box, and on League Teams and World of Sport.
Landy started out co-ordinating racing and football coverage at 3UL on Warragul in the early 1960s. That led him to 3UZ, then to GTV-9 and 3AK, where he presented news and sport, before he headed to HSV-7 in 1971.
Landy’s broadcast-honed style contrasted nicely with Lou’s earthier tones. The pair led Seven’s footy coverage, with Landy hosting the station’s Saturday night footy replays, until Seven lost the rights to broadcast VFL matches in 1987.
Landy remained with Seven, though, covering rowing at the Olympic Games, while Lou switched to Nine, where he delivered often irreverent previews of the weekend’s footy games for National Nine News and, later, appeared on The Footy Show and Sunday Footy Show.
RON CASEY
This is the man that gave us League Teams, World of Sport and live coverage of the VFL grand final from 1977 — negotiated over a handshake with then-VFL boss Jack Hamilton.
But long before he joined HSV-7 in 1956, Ron Casey was a footy and sports commentator of note at 3DB.
Casey covered Olympic Games, boxing (including calling Lionel Rose’s win over Fighting Harada for the world bantamweight title in 1968), Melbourne ice hockey matches and was heavily involved in racing too.
HARRY BEITZEL
Many football broadcasters start out as announcers, reporters or players. Harry Beitzel was a VFL umpire before he stepped into the commentary box.
He officiated in 182 senior VFL matches from 1948 to 1960 (including the 1955 grand final) before joining 3KZ as a caller in 1961.
His media career blossomed. He was 3AW’s chief caller for 16 years, also serving at 3AK and ABC Radio. His football work extended to TV on the ABC and GTV-9 and to print, writing columns for Truth, the Herald Sun, The Australian and Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph.
Beitzel is credited with introducing statistics, extensive previews and post-match analysis to footy calling, and with sowing the seeds in the 1960s for today’s International Rules matches with Ireland.
He was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 2006.
TED WHITTEN
He made a legend for himself on the ground as a Footscray premiership player in 1954, as a diehard captain coach for the Doggies and as the heart and soul of State of Origin and the Big V.
But even before he retired, Mr Football was making his mark in the media with passion, charisma, showmanship and knowledge of the game behind the microphone.
He joined HSV-7 and Mike Williamson calling finals when his season with Footscray had ended, urging St Kilda to go for the boundary line in the dying seconds of the Saints’ one-point victory in the 1966 grand final.
He was a popular part of Seven’s World of Sport footy panel too.
When GTV-9 beefed up its footy coverage in the early ‘70s, EJ was part of its team — a connection that lasted right up until The Footy Show in the 1990s and included a stint as a commentator on that great Sunday TV staple, World Championship.
On radio, he was 3KZ’s “around the grounds” commentator for many years. Then EJ, the western suburbs icon, took his brand of footy theatre a bit further west before calling Geelong games for 3GL (later, K-Rock) alongside a veteran of the 3DB and 3UZ call teams, Peter Le Grand.
The excitement and humour he brought to the 3GL/K-Rock commentary box lasted until his death in 1995.
MIKE WILLIAMSON
The voice of footy in Melbourne for decades, Williamson’s media career started at The Herald before he switched to radio in the early 1950s, with stints as a general announcer and football caller at 3AK and 3AW before he moved to HSV-7 in 1959.
He was the number one caller at Seven for decades and will be remembered forever for his call of St Kilda’s sole premiership win in 1966 and his immortal line, “Oh, Jesaulenko! You beauty!” when Carlton great towered over Collingwood ruckman Graeme “Jerker” Jenkin during the 1970 grand final.
Williamson remained at the top of his game when he retired, aged 49, in 1977.
CLINTON GRYBAS
Grybas was already one of the AFL’s best footy callers when he died suddenly in his apartment in January 2008, aged 32.
He began his media career as a reporter with the Warrandyte Diary and joined the South East Melbourne Magic basketball team as an in-house reporter before switching to the ABC. He
There, he showed his versatility as a sports commentator, calling matches in AFL, the National Basketball League, the National Soccer League and a host of other sports at international level including water polo, tennis and golf.
Grybas commentated at two Olympics and three Commonwealth Games.
From 2001, he combined brilliantly with Rex Hunt at 3AW at the footy and also called Australian Open tennis and F1 and MotoGP races.
The following year, he joined the Fox Footy Channel as chief commentator, also anchoring footy-themed shows including White Line Fever, a rare TV talkback program.
He was named the AFL’s Radio Broadcaster of the Year in 2005.
More than 1000 people attended his funeral, which was broadcast on the Fox Footy Channel.
REX HUNT
Love him or hate him, the Bearded Burbler was one of the most prolific VFL/AFL callers of his generation, having called more than 2000 AFL matches since 1979, following his retirement from VFL footy.
His calling career began at 3AW in 1979, but he switched to 3DB the following year and remained there until 1988 before returning to 3AW for season 1989.
By the time football went national in the early ‘90s, Rex Hunt was everywhere on the Seven Network as a caller, the host of Seven’s AFL Sunday footy panel and the star of I’m Rex Hunt and You’re Not and Rex Hunt’s Fishing Adventures.
Old mate and Footy Show rival Sam Newman even dubbed Seven Channel Rex.
Hunt’s star eventually faded at Seven but he was a 3AW fixture until he resigned in 2009 to join Triple M’s commentary team, then joined Crocmedia’s AFL broadcasts two years later.
Hunt returned to 3AW in 2017 to host a post-match talkback program, but has retired from football commentary.
Hunt is best known for his excitable style, his high-pitched “fat lady singing” when the outcome of a game is assured and his fabulous, convoluted nicknames for players.
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