The Goulburn Valley may be known as “Cardamone Country”, with the name synonymous with the real estate market throughout the region.
However, real estate mogul Peter Cardamone’s true passion and love is commentating football.
With 20 years of experience calling AFL matches for radio stations 6PR in Perth, NIRS Football and Triple M Melbourne, Cardamone has called more than 400 games and four grand finals at the highest level.
This Saturday, Cardamone will call his fifth AFL grand final when Sydney takes on Brisbane at the MCG for NIRS Football, which will be broadcast on One FM 98.5.
Cardamone — a Goulburn Valley League board member and owner of Cardamone Real Estate — will call the grand final alongside three-time premiership Lion Darryl White, good friend Barry Denner and former Collingwood and Sydney player Robbie Ahmat.
Starting his commentary career for One FM 98.5 community radio in 2003, Cardamone currently works for Triple M Melbourne and NIRS Football.
Cardamone has worked with some of the biggest names in AFL media, such as Dale Thomas, Leigh Montagna, Nathan Brown, Adam Papalia, Ash Chua and Kate McCarthy.
The veteran football commentator said the hard work and long hours he had put into his media career had taken its toll, but it had been worth it.
“Week-in week-out, it has been 20 years of driving down the Hume on my way to Melbourne,” Cardamone said.
“Sometimes I have wondered why I have done it, but I do it because I love it and (the people I call with) are part of my family.
“In the early days, I remember I would get home at two or three o’clock in the morning and then get up at seven to host One FM’s sports breakfast.
“It has been a lot of commitment and kilometres and it has been difficult for my wife and young family early days, but it has been a nice reward this year to be named as one of the two grand final callers.”
In a good sign for Saturday’s match, Cardamone’s previous grand final calls have been four of the more memorable grand finals this century.
His first two were the 2005-06 classics between West Coast and Sydney.
He then commentated on Hawthorn’s upset win in 2008 against heavy favourite Geelong and, lastly, he called Richmond’s drought-breaking win against Adelaide in 2017.
Cardamone said he was confident he knew how to best commentate the biggest game of the year.
“As a caller on grand final day, you don’t want to be giving too many stats; it is more about painting the picture of the environment, what the big picture is and what the storylines are,” he said.
“I am going to be taking the first bounce, which is an amazing experience.
“I have a good idea of what to expect, the emotions of it; we will keep it real and call the footy and let our expert commentators paint the picture of the game and how it pans out.”
Cardamone called last weekend’s thrilling preliminary final between Geelong and Brisbane, during which he said he produced his favourite commentary moment.
“The Cam Rayner goal last week was the biggest moment that I can remember in finals,” he said.
“The game was in the balance and there were question marks going deep into the finals as to whether Rayner could step up for Brisbane to be any chance.
“I called that passage of play: open goalsquare, city end, Rayner has picked it up, non-preferred left boot, 52m out, slight angle and from the moment I had the binoculars on Rayner, I knew he was going to kick the goal.
“My voice went up, the crowd went up, the expectation went up and I called that he was going to kick the goal and then I announced once it went through — before the crowd roared — ‘Brisbane are into a grand final, Cam Rayner has nailed the goal’.
“The crowd has gone through the roof and I looked at my co-caller Sam Duncan last Saturday; he looked at me, I looked at him and we knew that it was a pretty special moment.”