Making the call: Inside the life of an NRL commentator

From Matt Russell’s manila folder to Andrew Moore’s memory bank, rugby league's most respected voices are ready to bring the game to life again in 2023.

Whether it’s Jake Duke on the sideline or Tarsha Gale in the commentary box, we welcome them into our lounge rooms to add the colour and context to every game, every weekend.

With season kick-off upon us, NRL.com finds out what makes our commentators tick and why they wouldn't want to be anywhere else between March and October.

How did you break into the industry?

Matt Russell (Fox League)

I was news reporting and in 2008 Mat Thompson, who was at Fox, called the first year of the Holden Cup. But he made a move to Nine and they needed someone to call the Under 20s so the producer at the time asked me. I thought, 'wow I’ve got this wonderful opportunity, now I’ve got to work out how I’m going to do this'. You hear of lots of commentators who say ‘ever since I was six, I’ve wanted to be a footy commentator’. Even though I’d watched a hell of a lot of sport and marvelled at the broadcast side of it, I just never entertained that dream. Mum and Dad always said I was a bit of a television addict, especially when it came to sport but I just never really put myself in the bracket as being good enough to do it.

Andrew Moore (ABC Grandstand)

I remember when I did work experience at 2UE in 1984, one of the first people I met was [legendary caller] Frank Hyde. He said to me, ‘what do you want to do with your life, son?’ And I said, ‘I want to do what you do Mr Hyde, I want to be a rugby league commentator’. He told me, ‘that’s great but just be aware that statistically, you’re more chance of becoming a brain surgeon, there’s only ever three commentators in Sydney at any one time'. I remember when I got a call-up to be 2GB’s main caller in 1997, I did get some correspondence from Frank saying, ‘I’m glad you didn’t listen to my advice'. That’s something I’ll always remember.

Tarsha Gale (Fox League)

I grew up listening to Frank Hyde and Rex Mossop, who was a good friend of my parents. If I promised to be very quiet as a kid Rex would let me into the commentary box at the SCG. So to have the opportunity to do this in the women’s game is amazing. If someone had told me it was possible, I would have thought 'they’re dreaming’. But to see the growth of the women’s game and be involved at this level is truly a dream come true.

Jake Duke (Fox League)

In 2021, I had just signed with Fox and they said, 'come over to the commentary team, we’ll get you to do sideline'. I worked with Nine for eight years but in the sports newsroom so I was never actually involved in broadcast. I was just called into the commentary team that day and no one really told me what to do, so I was like ‘wow, they’re really just trusting me to do this’. I was pretty shocked and scared. I had grown up watching footy my whole life so to suddenly be one of the voices calling the game, it was very surreal to be bringing footy to people’s lounge rooms. I thought I was wildly underqualified and I can’t believe they gave me a chance but I just kind of ran with it.

Billy Slater (Channel Nine)

It was sort of a good thing out of a bad situation. I’ve always had a relationship with Nine and the Footy Show through my playing days but in 2010, when I was at the Storm playing for no competition points because of the salary cap issue, I got a start commentating the finals. I remember I co-sidelined with Andrew Johns in the Dragons v Manly semi-final at Kogarah.

Greg Alexander (Fox League)

It was during the 1999 season, so I was still playing. I remember 2UE were doing an outside broadcast at Panthers and my wife suggested I go down and talk to John Brennan to see if I could get a job. I don’t really like asking people for things, but she convinced me that I could do it and I went down and said, ‘John, you don’t suppose I could get a start in commentary?’ He said, ‘yeah sure'. I worked the next week on 2UE through the finals because the Panthers didn’t make it that year. So I started there before I went to Fox and I’m still doing it today.

Andrew Voss (Fox League)

It’s weird, I just always had this belief that I could call. I would call out loud and move footy cards on the ground growing up. I lived near Leichhardt so I went to a million footy games as a kid and would sit there and call it in my head. But it wasn’t until I was 20 that I got a start working weekends at 2UE answering phones and making coffees for Ray Hadley, Ray Price and Johnny Gibbs. Then my first time with the headphones on calling a game was in the 1992 Sevens Tournament at the SFS. It was played over three days and the first night I called St George v Balmain and they were seven-minute halves. So, I essentially had 14 minutes to prove myself. I went on to call a number of games on radio after that but in 1994 Nine got me calling the Schoolboy Cup competition which got my foot in the door in television. Schoolboys footy I hold very dear to my heart, I’m still very fond of it and very appreciative. 

Can you remember your first NRL or NRLW game?

Peter Psaltis (Channel Nine)

Mat Thompson was sick so I got the phone call before a Queensland Cup game saying, ‘get on the next flight to Brisbane and drive down to the Gold Coast’. It was Titans v Cowboys in 2019 and it was really low scoring, 6-4 in the end. But I had no notice at all, found out on that day it was happening and it was a real buzz. I was lucky we had the doyen of statisticians in David Middleton, so he quickly sent me all my stats and there was a lot of study done on the plane.

I always think that the hardest part for young callers is when you're strange to the audience, their natural reaction is to sort of push back. So the best ally you can have is time. The more people that hear your voice, the more accepted you become.

Matt Russell Fox League

Matt Russell

I had just called the Under 20s game at Homebush that afternoon and Adam Cox rang and said, ‘someone’s sick, can you go and call the NRL game at Penrith?’ Luckily I didn't have much time to think about it, because I would have been nervous as. It was Nathan Hindmarsh's 300th where Penrith’s Luke Walsh kicked a field goal to beat the Eels... poor Hindy. I remember finishing that game and thinking 'I don’t think I had any colossal stuff-ups'. Afterwards I saw a bit of online stuff, 'Who was that caller? He was terrible.'

Tarsha Gale

My first game was in 2019, Round 1 of the NRLW between the Dragons and the Broncos and I had the absolute privilege of learning from the best. It was ‘Blocker’ Roach, ‘Speedy’ [Brenton Speed] and myself. My brother Scotty Gale played alongside Blocker so I felt really familiar with him because he was often out at our house when I was younger. It was so nerve-racking – all the buttons and the producer talking though your headphones and cues – but to be able to sit between Speedy and Blocker, they just nursed me through it and made me feel so at home. It was like watching the game and sitting in your lounge room.

Honey Hireme (Sky New Zealand)

I called my first Warriors game in June last year, so I’m fairly new. Thinking back, it was no different to being a player really in terms of probably over-preparing for a game. I went into it fairly nervous but I was lucky enough to work alongside other ex-players Adam Blair and Monty Betham who are part of our commentary team here in New Zealand. It’s a shared role and we’re only as good as the rest of the team so we very much make sure we support each other.

Tell us about the prep that goes into calling a game?

Matt Russell

I’ve got two commentating jobs; one is sideline and one is play-by-play and they’re very different in terms of preparation. For play-by-play, as one former boss said to me – ‘just tell me who's making the tackle and carrying the ball’. For sideline, prep starts for me on Tuesday when the teams come out. Because as your prep week unfolds, you’ve got so many different pieces of paper, computer articles, and conversations with coaches and players, the best place for me to put it all in one spot is in my manila folder and when I’m calling, I just hold it. All the stuff you remember anyway but you just glance down at the pertinent time to relay what you’ve done for the week. In the middle of the folder, I write down the 17 players plus reserves with their games played this season and tries scored then games played career, tries scored. Then beside their names I’ll have interesting facts and figures about them to mention if they score a try, two tries, three tries. 

Tarsha Gale

I’m a schoolteacher and I promise you, I do my homework. I always sit down with pen and paper and prepare the team sheet and look at players' stats from the week before. A lot of it when I’m commentating just comes straight out of my head but I do have it all written down, and once you’ve done the research it just sort of cements it more. You can ask anybody that knows me, I do my homework and I tell my students that all the time.

Jake Duke 

The most common thing my mates say to me is, ‘Mate, you’re just rocking up to a footy game, your job's not that hard'. I wish it was that easy, I really do. We get stats provided from Fox Sports Lab and they’re great but I try and collate as much as I can into my own document which includes game stats and facts on each player. I’m usually sitting there on game day right up until I leave to go to the ground just trying to get as much info on the game as possible. I will type thousands of words on one game and use five per cent of it but there’s nothing more frustrating when think you can get away with not doing a bench guy and suddenly he’s the star of the game. So it’s certainly not just rocking up to footy, because basically you’re held accountable. If I’m the one that gets it wrong, then I’m the first person getting sprayed on Twitter. 

People will tell you you’re wrong very quickly. People know their sport and love their sport and don’t accept people not knowing it so you’re kind of putting your own reputation on the line. 

Jake Duke Fox Sports

Andrew Moore

Because we have a lot of pre-game shows – Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday – most of my preparation these days comes into that. I used to do a lot of prep for each game on players and stats but I don’t tend to do that much anymore, I’ll just be aware of looming milestones like how many tries Alex Johnston has scored at Stadium Australia. I’ll have a couple of notes but I don’t tend to do individual notes on every player for every game, it just became too much. You do tend to rely a bit on memory and things you’ve read throughout the week.

Billy Slater

It’s very similar to playing to be honest, you’ve got to prepare and you’ve got to back yourself to go out and perform. Although it’s not as intense or physical, there’s still that element of preparation impacting your performance. I take great pride in what I do and try and give a good insight into people listening and watching so knowing who's playing and doing my homework is really important.

Peter Psaltis

Fantasy players and tippers love Team List Tuesday and so do commentators because it’s our first look at who we’re calling this week.

So 4pm on a Tuesday I’m like every other NRL fan logging on to the app and seeing who's in, who's out and start to look at some of the match ups.

Peter Psaltis Nine

Wednesday morning I get straight into the prep, coming up with different notes on players. I like not just going off stats but seeing if there's any bits of info on a player’s background or just something a little bit left of centre. I’m also big on making sure all my pronunciations are right and I try to get out to the clubs during the week when I can, I think it’s important to keep those relationships going.

Andrew Voss 

I’m a creature of habit who goes by the ode 'he who fails to prepare is preparing to fail'. The preparation is the work, the calling is the fun. I’d call for nothing, it’s such a blast. I like to do my own notes and I have data files of players from their entire careers and have the support of Fox stats people as well. You may only use 10 percent of your notes but they’re all there so if a player stars you can paint a bit of a picture and tell their back story. Any chance you get to talk to a player, you talk to them about something and get it straight from the horse’s mouth. You read every article on the NRL website and in newspapers, so you absorb information from everywhere and, somewhere down the track, it may reveal itself in the commentary. The last thing I do before the game starts is I will write out the two teams that I call, I’ve always done that. I still have some from when I filed away my first Schoolboy written team sheets.

We are a support act, the stars are the players, but we are there to enhance the product. So, if we make the story more than just the match, I think that adds to the coverage.

Andrew Voss Fox League

Does your preparation change for big games like finals or Origin?

Matt Russell 

The players will say nothing changes, the coaches will say it’s just another game, but it really is. What you don’t want to do as a commentator is get too nervous or caught up in the occasion. You want to give it due respect but at the same time not build it up in your head to be something it’s not. The best thing is to stay relaxed, calm, and do your job.

Jake Duke

I think you’re certainly aware of the occasion but your preparation doesn’t change in that you prepare for a game as best you can anyway. The good thing is you’ve got more time to focus on one game because on an average weekend I’d probably do four sidelines as opposed to finals, I might only do one. However, the gravity of the game and the pressure ramps up on everyone because there’s more people watching and the stakes are higher.

Andrew Moore

For Origin particularly, I really like to let the game itself tell the story. You ride the wave of the crowd noise, the atmosphere, the speed of the game and by that time you know something about the individual players if you need to add something extra in. So those stories tend to unfold themselves and you’ve got to leave yourself open to whatever is happening in front of you in big games like that. For finals, I remember getting a tip from former 2UE program director John Brennan saying when it comes to finals games, just be aware that people who don’t listen every week are listening so you have to mention which team has the ball more often.

Peter Psaltis

Something I learnt off the best ever, Ray Warren, is that if you put the same amount of preparation into any game then you can’t go wrong. Because one thing I’ve worked out is you never know when there’s going to be that big moment. 

What different perspectives do you get on the sideline compared to the commentary box?

Matt Russell

I’ve come to really love that role because the sideline has only got busier and busier. Sometimes I leave the ground thinking I hardly saw any of the game because I spent so much time checking in with the respective benches, ground staff, HIA officials, medical tent and doing interviews. There’s a lot going on down there and it’s a bit chaotic.

Jake Duke

You don’t realise sitting in the stands just how physical the game is. When you’re up close you can hear the hits and have a real appreciation for the speed at ground level and obviously TV takes a lot of that away. When its centre on centre right on the sideline and you can hear the impact, it’s just so ridiculous. I think we lose track of what athletes these men and women are.We get desensitised to it over years of watching it on TV but being there close gives you a real appreciation to how hard it is and how fit and how strong you have to be. It’s borderline crazy.

Brent Read (Triple M)

It’s pretty cool being that close to the footy and watching things unfold on the sideline. You’ve got to pinch yourself sometimes because you’re so blessed to do what you do. You can be thrown to at anytime so you’ve got to have your wits about you because if you take your eyes off the action, a bloke could be sent off or get a HIA and you could miss it if you’re not watching closely.

Can you pinpoint a career highlight?

Andrew Moore

The first grand final I ever called was Newcastle and Manly and it was a horrible year with the Super League-ARL split, but I remember we did a pre-game show at the front of the SFS at 10.00am and you just had a feeling that there was something special in the air. There was all the talk about how Andrew Johns might die if he played the game because of an internal injury he had. There was Matt Johns attempting a field goal and you could literally see it holding up in the breeze and coming back down. Then there was the finish where they scored off the last play of the game. It was such a dramatic game of footy with a dream result for a region that needed it so desperately.

Greg Alexander

There’s been so many over 20 years. Probably the one that stands out immediately is we were still calling the grand final at Fox in 2015. I just thought that was an epic game between the Broncos and Cowboys. For the Cowboys to score the try in the last minute and Johnathan Thurston to miss the goal but kick the field goal in Golden Point, that was pretty special.

Andrew Voss

The best game ever that I called would be the 2013 World Cup semi-final between England and New Zealand at Wembley Stadium. That was a game you remember for a lifetime with the Shaun Johnson try and goal at the end to break England’s hearts. It didn’t need the grandstand finish to be a great game, but it got it.

Honey Hireme-Smiler

I can’t go past the first Warriors first home game against the Wests Tigers after COVID, which was also my first NRL game. That was really important because the situation was probably bigger than the game itself in terms of having a big homecoming for the boys after three years.

Any ‘Oh, no’ moments?

Peter Psaltis

It was on the Gold Coast, Titans v Dragons, and it was the first time I called with Paul Vautin and Peter Sterling. Dinner arrived late this night and I didn’t realise they started eating the pies and sausage rolls at the start of the second half of the game. There was a try in the opening set of six in the second half and I called the try as it’s scored and then looked to my left and right and saw Fatty and Sterlo with a mouthful of pies and sausage rolls. I just burst out laughing. We had to explain what happened in the end because it took a while to get it together.

Billy Slater

There’s been multiple times where I just can’t get a name out or I’ve lost a word. It’s a pretty lonely place when you’re trying to scramble for a word or when you can’t quite pronounce someone’s name and you’ve given it a go three or four times but just can’t nail it. You’ve just got to own those moments. When you look back and see some of the greats of the commentary box have had bloopers, you know you’re in good company. I think showing a bit of personality is a really important part of the job actually. We love seeing the players show a bit of personality and I think it’s the same with the commentary box.

Brent Read

There’s no specific bloopers but I’ve said some stupid stuff on air. Afterwards I often think to myself, ‘what the hell did that mean?’ I also drove to the wrong field last year. I think I drove to Parramatta instead of Gosford but everyone’s done that at some point, surely. If you do enough games you’ll go to the wrong ground at some point.

Jake Duke

I’ve had some classic Wayne Bennett moments. Where Wayne just gives me a one-word answer. There’s been some awkward pre-game interviews because the coach isn’t in a mood to chat. Some coaches are notorious for not giving you much.

Andrew Voss

It still haunts me to this day but I did get food poisoning during a call one year. I had some crook salami and I can laugh about it now but it still puts me in a cold sweat. I was throwing up by half-time. I remember the producer telling me in the box I looked like I was going to die which was very reassuring… because that’s how I felt. It was in Canberra on a cold night and Ben Ikin and Mark Geyer took over the calling at half-time. And with the greatest respect, it was some very different commentary.

What would you be doing if you weren’t commentating?

Tarsha Gale

I would still be there at every game, probably commentating from the grandstand or the hill. I just can’t help but be vocal about the greatest game of all. The more vocal the fans are, the better the atmosphere and the feeling. So if I didn’t have the great honour of commentating then I’m sure you’d hear my voice out on the hill.

Jake Duke

I’ve thought about that a lot actually. I’ve just always wanted to be a sports journalist, it was my only real goal in life. I worked hard but I'm lucky some people have taken a chance on me.  I love what I do, I love rugby league, and I’ve wanted to be involved in sport my whole life. If I wasn’t related to sport, the other thing I would be really passionately involved in is working in the Indigenous space and I try to marry those two up when I can. The NRL is such a great platform for Indigenous Australians and Indigenous athletes issues and they do it so well.

Andrew Moore

I never had a Plan B in life, it was always going to be radio and sports commentary so I honestly have no idea what I would be doing. I’m a firm believer that if you want something bad enough then you can get it because that’s what I did.

Greg Alexander

I was working at Panthers when I finished, doing a bit of sponsorship and coaching so I’d like to think I’d still be involved in the game somewhere. I’m just very fortunate to still be right in the thick of the action by talking about the game and calling the action on the weekend. It’s a great job and you do count yourself lucky. Nothing’s ever too hard when you’re talking about footy.

Peter Psaltis

I was a tennis coach for a while so I might still be doing that, or maybe working at the fruit and veg market. I haven’t thought about that for a while because I just love working in TV and radio and there’s nothing better than sitting in a commentary box for Nine calling the best rugby league competition in the world.

Andrew Voss

I’d be watching every game that’s for sure. I’m a lifelong fan. When I was seven, I started following Souths because I loved bunny rabbits but really I just loved the game. I was an absolute rugby league nut and would go to as many games as I could, so if I wasn’t doing this for a paid job, I’d still be sitting in the bleachers with the fans every week. For work, if I could be the man mowing the lawns the players play on then that would do.

Honey Hireme-Smiler

I still work full-time as a Disability Support Adviser. I’ve worked in that space for about 10 years, so it worked hand-in-hand with my footy career as well. The plan was also to get into some coaching but that’s been put on hold because I’ve been so busy with the broadcasting.

Brent Read

Before I became a journalist I worked in the bank for two years and the public service for two years so I went down a couple of different paths. My mum’s got a schoolbook from Year 5 saying that I want to be a rugby league journalist so I think I was always destined to go down this path – it just took me a little while to get there.

What advice would you give to someone interested in commentating?

Billy Slater 

There was one bit of advice that Ray Warren gave me. 'When the crowd’s up, you’re up and when the crowd’s down, you’re down.' It was just a great bit of advice because it's really important to be able to read that atmosphere and adjust your levels to what the game is.

Tarsha Gale 

Get on the women’s game. Ride that wave because we are growing and we need some more female commentators. Each year there's more teams, more rounds and more games so if you aspire to be a commentator, put your hand up and give it a crack.

Andrew Moore 

Practice, practice, practice. Do heaps of tapes before you even bother sending them to anybody. I used to give Ray Hadley and John Brennan tapes every week and taped well over 100 games before I got the chance to call in 1994. Whether it’s watching on TV or the back of the grandstand, just get repetition going and send them into me or other commentators and get some feedback and take it on board. There’s no shortcut, you’ve got to practice and it’s got to become a natural thing.

Matt Russell 

Be passionate. It’s going to be a long career if you’re not passionate about rugby league and sports. Secondly, you need to realise it’s not a job where you rock up at 5.00pm on Saturday or 2.00pm on Sunday and call footy for two hours. A lot of work has to go into getting ready to do that. And lastly, have a thick skin and stay at it because when you first start, your voice will be new, it will be strange and in this social media driven world there will be lots of avenues for trolls to have a crack. 

Peter Psaltis 

The biggest piece of advice that has been handed to me that I could give is ‘you can be inspired by many commentators but in the end of you’ve got to be yourself'. There’s only ever going to be one Ray Warren, one Mat Thompson and one Peter Psaltis.

Andrew Voss

That’s a hard one because there’s not enormous amounts of opportunities to do it but I will say, right from an early age, all you can do is keep reading and just absorb yourself in the game. Read aloud in the car, drive yourself mad, watch every game you can. And it might not be a direct path to rugby league commentary that gets you there, if any opportunity to be a commentator arises, it’s all getting you to a position where you become able to call what you see and be colourful and excited. It doesn’t have to be a rugby league game to practise the art of commentary.  

Honey Hireme-Smiler

From a female perspective, I think we have different insights and see the game differently. I often get feedback saying I have a different point of view, so I think just having the confidence to use your voice in that way. Obviously, there’s not a lot of female commentators out there so it’s about breaking down those barriers and it’s important I do a good job so there’s a career path for other young women who may want to work in this space.

Jake Duke 

I would say that it is a lot more work than you think it is and also no one is just going to hand it to you and say, 'have a go on the sideline'. I spent 10 years as a sports journalist working in newsrooms, working overnights and weekends on the Today show. I’ve worked every weekend of my entire 20s. It’s a great job but it’s not a normal job so you’ve got to be willing to accept that if that’s what you want to do you’ve got to love it and have a real passion for it.