Clinton Andrew Grybas (9 February 1975 – 5 January 2008) was a leading

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

and sports radio and television commentator.

Career

His media career began at the

South East Melbourne Magic The South East Melbourne Magic was an Australian basketball team based in Melbourne. The Magic competed in the National Basketball League (NBL) between 1992 and 1998, and played their home games at Rod Laver Arena. In their seven seasons, the ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team as club journalist and gameday host before he gained a key role with the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

in Melbourne and then in Perth, where he called and presented the ABC's coverage of

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

matches. He anchored or commentated National Basketball League (NBL) and National Soccer League (NSL) games as well as

Hopman Cup The Hopman Cup is an international eight-team indoor hardcourt tennis tournament that played mixed-gender teams on a country-by-country basis.It was held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, before being replaced on the calen ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

and racing events. His most memorable moment on air was calling the women's

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

gold medal match at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which was won by Australia in the final seconds. He switched to commercial radio in 2001, where he joined

Rex Hunt Rex James Hunt (born 7 March 1949) is an Australian television and radio personality, and a former Australian rules football player. He was also a veteran Australian rules football commentator known for his habit of making up quirky nicknames ...

3AW 3AW is a talkback radio station based in Melbourne. It broadcasts on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station. The station is owned and operated by Nine Entertainment Co. Hist ...

to form the self-proclaimed "number one calling team" in the game. He continued to cover many different sports included the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

, boxing and both the

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

and MotoGP Grand Prix events. He commentated at two Olympic Games and three

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

and was a Torchbearer in the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Torch Relay. In 2005 he was named AFL's Radio Broadcaster of the Year. When the

Fox Footy Channel The Fox Footy Channel was a channel exclusively dedicated to Australian rules football. It was owned by Foxtel and operated out of their Melbourne based studios. From 2002 - 2006 it was available on Foxtel, Austar, Optus Television, TransTV ...

began in 2002, Grybas became the new television channel's leading commentator and program host. He commentated games each week as well as hosting the nightly talkback show '' White Line Fever'' and the weekly wrap-up show ''

The Winners ''The Winners'' was a long running Australian television series that shows highlights of Australian rules football matches. Original show (1970s and 1980s) The original version was broadcast from 1977 until 1986 on the ABC on Sunday morning ...

''. He continued to work for

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

after the dedicated football channel was axed at the end of 2006.

Death

Grybas was found dead at his home on the morning of 5 January 2008, aged 32, after he failed to turn up at 3AW to present the midday sports radio show. Apartment staff found him lying face down on his bedroom floor and rushed to hospital, where he was formally pronounced dead. A preliminary news report theorised that Grybas died as a result of head injuries due to a

sleepwalking Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism or noctambulism, is a phenomenon of combined sleep and wakefulness. It is classified as a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. It occurs during slow wave stage of sleep, in a state of lo ...

-induced accident. An autopsy was completed, but the results were not publicly released. The response to his death was generally one of shock, and many fellow commentators and players believed that he was amongst the best sports commentators in Australia. His funeral service on 15 January 2008 at CityLife Church in Wantirna South was open to the public and also broadcast on Foxtel. Over 1000 people attended, including his partner Laurenna Toulmin, parents Sandra and Vic Grybas, brother Ashley, and many sporting and media personalities. He grew up in

Warrandyte Warrandyte is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 24 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Manningham local government area. Warrandyte recorded a population of 5,541 at the . Warrandyt ...

, is a Life Member of The Warrandyte Basketball Club, and was buried in Andersons Creek cemetery in that suburb. On 25 March 2008, it was reported by

Derryn Hinch Derryn Nigel Hinch (born 9 February 1944) is a New Zealand-born media personality, politician, actor, journalist and published author. He is best known for his career in Australia, on Melbourne radio and television. He served as a Senator for V ...

that Grybas had died of natural causes after suffering an allergic reaction to something he ate or drank the previous evening. His family, however, claim that the death was unascertained and that there has been no mention of an allergic reaction by the coroner.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grybas, Clinton 1975 births 2008 deaths 3AW presenters Australian rules football commentators Australian television presenters Television personalities from Melbourne Journalists from Melbourne Australian tennis commentators Motorsport announcers Golf writers and broadcasters People from Warrandyte, Victoria Burials in Victoria (Australia)