Ray Warren delivers commentating tour de force as Sharks win NRL grand final

WAS it Ray “Rabbits” Warren’s last NRL grand final? MIKE COLMAN was in front of the telly to hear the Voice of Rugby League at least one more time.

I WAS there for the Sharks’ first grand final loss at the SCG in 1973 and I was there in 1997 when they got dusted in Brisbane too, but there was no way I was going to be at the ground for this one.

When I heard Ray “Rabbits” Warren say during the week that this could be his last grand final I knew my place was at home in front of the telly. The Voice of Rugby League and I have been through too many GFs together to let him bow out alone.

I only have to remember Ray’s immortal words from 1986 as Mick Cronin set off on his last lap of honour — “he’s a monument, not just to rugby league, but to all humanity” — for a tear to come to my eye.

I wasn’t sure if Rabs would say the same about Mick Ennis at the end of this game, but I knew he would have some gems for us regardless.

And I wasn’t disappointed — when the Great Man finally made his appearance.

Ray Warren said during this week this could be his last grand final.

Obviously the brains-trust at Channel 9 didn’t want to tire him out. After calling 40 grand finals he’s paid his dues and then some. It was up to the rookies Yvonne Sampson and Darren Lockyer to do the hard yards early.

When I turned the box on at 9.30am, there they were talking about Cooper Cronk’s work ethic and when I tuned in again six and a half hours later, they still were chatting away.

By then they had been joined by Joey Johns and his freeze-frame video screen, which enables him to break the game down to its most basic elements while still managing to sound confused, which is no easy thing.

One point that Joey was most insistent on ramming home — repeating it three times, in fact — was the fact that Ben Barba is “rugby league fast” — as opposed, I guess, to netball fast, badminton fast or, the slowest of all fast, chess fast.

Gus Gould seemed particularly unanimated early in the coverage, perhaps because Penrith weren’t playing. In fact he hardly opened his mouth until the word filtered through to the match officials that Channel 9 had run out of ads for upcoming programs so they might as well start the game.

“The best moment in a big game is when someone knocks on the door and says it’s time,” Gus said.

James Maloney on the charge for the Sharks against the Storm.

Having spent a fair bit of time in big-game press boxes over the years, I would have thought the best moment is when someone knocks on the door and says the party pies are ready, but that’s just me.

Rabbits came out firing on all cylinders. The Junee Kid showed his empathy for the boys in the bush doing it tough, speaking of Cronulla’s “premiership starvation” and the “weekend of the drought-breakers.”

Gus stayed a passenger for most of the first half; the only time we knew Locky, Joey and Freddy hadn’t headed to the pub was when Rabs gave a rap to “the great commentators on the Channel 9 team” just before half-time.

They couldn’t get a word in. It was all Rabbits, a commentating tour de force, as he would say.

“Bird with a broken wing”, “Lewis has hit him with everything bar his bandage”, “Gallen back out there. Captain Courageous. He had a brilliant first session. Not sure if that’s the word to describe Paul, but you know what I mean.”

Storm prop Jesse Bromwich charges into the Sharks defence.

But as Melbourne came back into the game, so did Gus. It was incredible how many times he said “incredible”.

And it was. Absolutely incredible.

As Rabs summed it up so succinctly: “It was the tradesman versus the apprentice and the fairytale came true.

“You can turn the light off now,” he finished on, in reference to Harold Holt when the fulltime whistle finally went.

But what of the Voice of Rugby League, was this his last Big One, is he too turning off the light?

Only he knows, but one thing is for certain. He’s a monument, not just to rugby league, but to all humanity.

Paul Gallen and Andrew Ettingshausen celebrate the Sharks’ win. Picture: Brett Costello

Originally published as Ray Warren delivers commentating tour de force as Sharks win NRL grand final