{"id":30071,"date":"2021-02-03T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=30071"},"modified":"2021-02-03T08:58:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T08:58:54","slug":"why-ray-warren-isnt-retiring-just-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=30071","title":{"rendered":"Why Ray Warren isn't retiring just yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ray Warren<\/a>, the voice of rugby league, won't be hanging up his 44-year-old binoculars anytime soon with Channel Nine confirming he will call again this year.<\/p>\n

Warren, 77, met with Nine sports bosses on Monday and the network confirmed to the Herald that Warren will continue calling the NRL this season.<\/p>\n

The decision ends months of speculation about his future. Many had figured the 2020 season would be his last \u2014 including the man himself.<\/p>\n

Indeed, he walked out of Nine's old studios on Willoughby after calling State of Origin III off a TV screen believing he'd just called for the last time.<\/p>\n

"When I walked away after that Origin, I thought that was it," Warren told the Sydney Morning Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n

"Then I thought, 'Hang on, I'd done something I'd never do before: calling off the tube. I'd never contemplated not being at the event, in times gone by, but that was the reality of calling last year. I was ready to pull the pin on everything last year but when I thought about it that wasn't the type of season I'd like to go out on."<\/p>\n

\"Ray<\/p>\n

Warren is an icon of sports broadcasting.<\/p>\n

He called his first game of rugby league in 1966 \u2014 a Maher Cup match between West Wyalong and Barmedman \u2014 and since then has become the booming voice of rugby league.<\/p>\n

Like a champion player, Warren has always said he never wants to go a season too long and trusts those around him to tell him when it's time to retire.<\/p>\n

Nine has slowly cut back his workload in recent years but still want him for the headline matches such as finals and State of Origin.<\/p>\n

That was never more evident than late last year when Nine was desperate to get him into Queensland for the deciding Origin at Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"Ray<\/p>\n

A notoriously nervous flyer, Warren wasn't prepared to take a small charter flight to satisfy COVID-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n

Then Queensland Annastacia Palaszczuk closed the border and Warren was forced to call the match in the studio.<\/p>\n

It was the first match since 1981 when he hasn't required his iconic binoculars he bought from a pawn shop in Parramatta when he was also calling the Melbourne Cup for Channel Ten.<\/p>\n

"They're shedding their skin like a snake sheds its skin, that's how old they are," Warren quipped. "I can assure you I didn't need them when I was calling off the tube. That's when I will have to give it away."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ray Warren, the voice of rugby league, won't be hanging up his 44-year-old binoculars anytime soon with Channel Nine confirming he will call again this […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30071"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30073,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30071\/revisions\/30073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}