Ray Warren may retire as voice of NRL
Ray Warren, the voice of rugby league, will decide in the next few weeks whether he has called his last game.
Warren is now 77 and though he dreads the thought of retirement, he also says he wants to make sure he does not harm the legacy he has built behind the microphone and binoculars the past 55 years.
There has been intense interest in Warren’s future since he officially resigned from Channel Nine at the end of 2017. He continued to call games on a casual basis and has an arrangement with Nine that prevents him ever calling for a rival network. Nine are yet to formalise their official league line-up for the 2021 NRL season, and Warren knows he will need to give an answer in the coming weeks. He has stopped short of declaring he is a certainty to be heard in 2021. ‘‘I’m fearful of retirement because you don’t know what it is like until you dip your toe in the water, but then I’m fearfully protective of the good run I’ve been given and I don’t want to damage whatever reputation I may have built,’’ Warren told the Sydney Morning Herald. ‘‘That’s pretty much your equation right there. I know I’m getting older, and I don’t want make a fool of myself and undo what I might have done.
‘‘I’ve had a really good run, that run has lasted 55 years. I’ve told Nine I’ll take the summer to make up my mind. I do still enjoy it, and anyone who works with me will tell you that – I still get excited.’’
It is well documented Warren has a fear of flying, and tries to avoid covering interstate games when possible. He also continues to battle with nerves in the days leading up to games, something that has gradually worsened over the years.
Nine could yet be tempted to use Warren for big games like Origin. Last year’s decider played at Suncorp Stadium was Warren’s 96th straight interstate fixture, but one he needed to call remotely for the first time in his career from the Sydney studios.
‘‘The biggest fear I have is to make a mistake and not know you have made it,’’ Warren said. ‘‘It’s all well and good to make a mistake and then go back and correct it. But when you make one and you don’t know, I think that is described as senility.’’