It's over. Dennis Cometti, the man with tonsils of silver and a wit that can cut like a hot knife through butter, will call his last AFL game this weekend.
The giant of football commentary hangs up his headphones after a broadcasting career that has spanned 49 years. He has been with the Seven Network on and off since the late 1980s and before that worked for the ABC and in FM radio.
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He has called a vast array of sports, including cricket, swimming (his call of Kieren Perkins' gold in 1996 is considered one of the greats) and even the annual naked sprint at the Meredith Music Festival. For Gen-Y football fans, he has been the voice of the game for as long as they can remember.
While Cometti's longevity is impressive, his continual popularity is even more astounding.
You could kick a footy down Bourke Street and hit half a dozen people who don't rate Bryan Taylor or Luke Darcy but to find someone anti-"Den" is truly rare.
Why's that? If Cometti's pure play-by-play commentary is the reliable sponge cake, his one-liners are the icing and the cream.
In a world full of boofy blokes trying to out "mate" each other, Denis's subtle yet intelligent "Cometti-isms" separate him from the pack. He's the master of metaphor and the superstar of simile.
They're so good he's created his own industry. Two of his most famous bon mots, "centimetre perfect" and "that's ambitious", ended up becoming the titles of books.
Another one, "like a cork in the ocean", features in an insurance company tribute that has been running on Seven in the past few weeks.
Here are a few more quotable quotes from across the years.
On some typical hard play by Tony Liberatore:
"He entered the pack optimistically and emerged misty optically."
On bad kicking by the Saints:
"The Saints are spraying them everywhere. They're like a bunch of cologne salesmen getting paid on commission."
On Adam Yze's last name:
"Terrific player, terrible scrabble hand."
On full forward Scott Cummings calling for the ball:
"Scotty Cummings alone in the square, jumping up and down and waving his arms like they're playing My Sharona."
On the always fruitful topic of players' names:
"Barlow to Bateman … the Hawks are attacking alphabetically."
On a simple mistake:
"I wonder what the team psychologist will make of that. (Shane) Tuck dropped that mark and immediately shouted out his own surname."
More fun with player names:
"In for the Cats today, David and Steve Johnson. Who better to patch up a line-up than Johnson & Johnson?"
When Paul Roos was doing wonders as coach of the Sydney Swans:
"There is something magnetic about his aura. Paul Roos should be covered in fridge magnets."
On Brent Guerra seeking hair replacement treatment:
"Brent (Guerra) hates losing and that extends to his hair."
On Kangaroos full back Glenn Archer:
"Getting past Glenn Archer is still like trying to tiptoe past Mayfair and Park Lane with hotels."
On West Coast and Fremantle player Daniel Metropolis:
"Metropolis, kicking to the city end."
On a run-in between Port Adelaide's Josh Carr and his brother Matthew Carr:
"How's that, a two Carr collision, both with the same rego!"
On the red headed Cameron Ling:
"Ling's running off the ground a little bit gingerly."