Ray Warren announced on Wednesday he has stepped away from calling live sport after a decorative commentary career.

The 78-year old has been the voice of Rugby League for decades on WWOS.

He ends his calling career on 99 Origins.

Ray Hadley called into Drive with Jim Wilson to react to the news and share memories of Warren’s broadcasting career.

“My association with the legendary Rabs goes back 42 years, I left a cassette in his letter box of me calling races … he claims never to have got it to give me some mentoring,” he told Jim Wilson.

“One day he said to me, ‘Hadley, we can go up to Newcastle and you can call a couple and get a bit of practise in and I will do the rest.’ I called races one, two, three, four, five, six and seven whilst he was on the punt … I said ‘you said I can call a couple but I’ve done every one’ and he said ‘that is what is wrong with you young blokes, you don’t appreciate the opportunity I am giving you.’

“He is the best there has been.”

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Gus Gould, Channel Nine Commentator, joined Jim Wilson to praise Warren on his career and thank him for leading the way.

“We all anticipated that this day would come but it was a shock it happened this year,” he said.

“He has given us so many wonderful memories and has been such an important man in our lives.

“We are all greatly indebted for the lives we have enjoyed and the careers we have enjoyed.

There are very few people in the world who can say they have worked with the best of all time and we can all say that at Nine because we have worked with Ray Warren.”

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Image: Getty / James Gourley / Stringer