League loses its voice with ‘Rabs’ to hand over the microphone

Veteran Nine Network rugby league commentator Ray Warren. Picture: Brett Costello

It’s long been suspected but AWAAT can reveal Ray ‘Rabs’ Warren is set to step down as Channel 9’s No 1 rugby league caller for the 2021 season.

Nine’s No 2 play-by-play man Matt Thompson has had his contract upgraded to the top slot, meaning Warren is ready to step away after more than three decades in the big chair.

The 77-year-old’s association with the network started in the 1970s as a greyhound caller and has included memorable stints commentating on swimming but it is rugby league that ‘Rabs’ is most associated with, rejoining the station in 1989 and becoming the voice of rugby league ever since.

Warren signed a five-year deal with Nine in 2017 but he has ­gradually been winding down his duties as age and health battles take their toll.

Thompson has been dubbed ‘The Invisible Man’ by some sections of the media — you only ever hear his voice and never see his face. But it’s a little harsh. Ask yourself, when was the last time you saw rather than just heard ‘Rabs’ during a game? Or former Nine play-by-play man Ray Hadley, for that matter. Either way, Nine’s coverage won’t be the same without ‘Rabs’.

Give Gordon a gig

Nine shares the rugby league rights with Fox Sports but, from next year, they get rugby union all to themselves. It has led to some furrowed brows from rugby fans concerned the network will simply ask their NRL guys, many whom are fierce critics of the 15-man code, to do double shifts.

Nine has promised to add some “fresh faces” to their rugby coverage (former Wallabies winger and ex-Fox Sports presenter Drew Mitchell is believed to be one of them) but they’d be missing a trick if ‘The Voice of Rugby’ Gordon Bray wasn’t added to the roster.

Wherever the rugby rights have landed, Bray has followed — from his starting point at the ABC, to Seven and Ten.

Bray confirmed to AWAAT this week, he’s available next season and keen to continue his rugby calling career at a fourth network.

Gordon Bray during his film debut on The Brighton Miracle

You might remember, AWAAT was the column that helped launch Bray’s movie career. He played himself in The Brighton Miracle — a 2019 movie about the greatest upset in the game’s history that was launched during last year’s Rugby World Cup — after we connected him with the film’s Australian writer and director Max Man nix.

The Brighton Miracle was big in Japan — after all, it told the story of the Brave Blossoms’ 2015 win over the Springboks — but only got a limited release in Australia.

But we are pleased to reveal Ten will air it for the first time on free-to-air next Saturday night after the Wallabies’ Test against Argentina.

The game will be a farewell to an extended 2020 rugby season that started way back in January. It will also be a farewell to Ten as a rugby broadcaster. Let’s hope it’s not also a farewell for Bray.

Millman’s hotel hell

Aussie tennis good guy John ­Millman is a twitchy sort of fellow. He’s lucky to sit still at a 90-second change of ends, so two weeks in hotel quarantine doesn’t strike AWAAT as something he’d breeze through.

On the home stretch this week, he said: “It’s not too easy. I was ­expecting it to be a little challenging but it really isn’t easy at all. There’s no fresh air in the room. That’s a little tough. The people downstairs have a little bit of a ­balcony but we don’t. Just trying to stay active. We’re past the halfway point so at least it’s downhill ­running from here.”

Millman is doing quarantine with his partner, Fee Maeueler.

“I’m probably annoying her,” Millman said with a laugh.

“We’re looking forward to getting through to the other side. It’ll be good to get out of here.”

To the suggestion a fortnight of quarantine sounded like make-or-break for any relationship, he laughed again and said: “You might be right. We just need to get through the next few days. The place we’re staying at is doing a wine night then. If I can get through to then and butter her up with some nice wine, I think we’ll be all right.”

Tennis player John Millman and his girlfriend Fee Maeueler quarantining in Sydney’s Sofitel Wentworth Hotel. Picture: Jane Dempster

Age-old debate

Last week’s item about former prime minister Stanley Bruce’s strong association with golf ­mentioned that his father John Munro Bruce was co-founder of Australian’s oldest golf club, Royal Melbourne.

Not the oldest, according to reader Tony Hewitt, who points out The Australian Golf Club in Sydney was the nation’s first.

The Australian Golf Club has had a few different locations over the years. It was first founded in 1882 at Moore Park in Sydney’s inner eastern suburbs, but that ­location had to be abandoned in 1888 so a new road could be built. It reappeared in Waverley as a nine-hole layout and then shifted again to Botany before finally settling in its present Rosebery location in 1904-05. The club was homeless between 1888 and 1895, which has given rise to Royal ­Melbourne’s claims as Australia’s oldest golf club.

Royal Melbourne was founded in 1891 in Caulfield but urban sprawl saw it moved further afield. The now world-famous East and West courses at Black Rock weren’t ready for play until the early 1930s. You can argue the toss about which is the older club but it seems a moot point — ­neither comes close to being the oldest course.

That honour goes to Tasmania’s Ratho Farm which was founded by Scottish settlers in 1822, smack back in the middle of the Apple Isle. And it still exists to this day.

Australia’s oldest golf course, Ratho Farm in Tasmania

Moore’s the pity

So it seems Sydney’s Moore Park is mainland Australia’s original golf destination. Which makes moves to downgrade the present-day Moore Park Golf Course from a quality 18-hole layout — one of the best public courses in the state — to a measly nine-holer, all the more disturbing.

Mayor of Sydney City Clover Moore has decided the 45ha space, which has been a golf course since 1913, should be trimmed by 20ha to create new public ­parkland. She thinks it is better use of the space in an area which is among Australia’s most densely populated.

There are two issues that spring to mind:
1. Moore Park is one of Australia’s busiest golf courses. That space is used by plenty of people.
2. There is already a rather large piece of parkland just across Anzac Parade from the course. It’s called Centennial Park.

Moore Park has launched a petition you can sign to preserve the 18-hole layout.

Go to www.change.org/p/­protect-moore-park-golf-club

mcloughlins@
theaustralian.com.au
Twitter: @simmomac