'It's ripped me apart': Mat Thompson's heartbreaking tribute to David ‘Thirsty’ Morrow 04:53

Look, another bloke who's been a long-time fan of this program, and you hear us refer to him as Philphress. He's phoned through from Albury. G'day, Phil.

G'day, Levy, Big Gal and Flano. Hope you're all doing okay, mate. It's a very tough time for everyone. I just want to send my condolences to obviously Davey's family, you blokes, and everybody concerned for his passing. Just want to thank him for everything that he's contributed over the years.

And I guess from my point of view, in the last seven or eight years since he's joined the show, just from my point of view, I'm just very blessed to be able to meet him, have a bit of fun with him over the years, mainly with the hunt for David Morrow. I'm up from time to time. I know David loved it, not. LAUGHTER

But, yeah, I'm sure he's upstairs catching up with his old mates at the pub upstairs. Absolutely. I can imagine the stories. Well, it's funny you say that, Phil, because there was one here, a message that came through in and amongst the hundreds we're receiving saying virtually that I'm sure Davey has probably found Shane Warne somewhere and he's just hammering him with stories about his flipper and all those sorts of things. So you have no doubt that he'd be doing exactly that.

It'll be thrown a few googly's as well, yeah? Yeah, absolutely. Good on you, mate. And thank you for your support of the show over a long, long time. Thank you, mate. You're a good man. Matt Thompson, who did a brilliant job in very difficult circumstances on Wednesday night, calling State of Origin for Wednesday night. And like me, Davey was a father figure to Matty and they were extremely close. And I know Matt's put something together for his funeral on Thursday and he's been driving around. He just sent me a lovely text message. He's on the line. G'day, Matty.

G'day, boys. Yeah, I'm a bit emotional, actually. It's kind of just all hit home, I think, listening to the start of the show. It's just such a sad thing. You know, he, apart from the brilliance of the broadcaster, you know, Davey was a bit gruff and cranky, as you've already touched on at the start of the show at times. But honestly, there's never been a bloke with a softer kind of heart. And, you know, it's just so to see him

reduced to what happened at the end there was so unfair and um i'm glad he's at rest but you know i miss him already it's actually hard to believe he's not here anymore yeah and and maddie he took such a keen interest in your two boys um in the sporting uh sport that they play and when you took over from ray warren which was an unenviable task and you've done it brilliantly the man who was there to support him and give you words of encouragement was davey wasn't he

Yeah, like, I got a lot of messages sort of ahead of my first origin three years ago, but the one I cherished the most is from him. You know, he sort of sent it the night of the game and it meant everything to me. And, yeah, like, he sent Jacob messages to congratulate him on, you know, getting 20 or 30 when he was batting. You know, the kids love him and my wife, Ruth, loves him. We've had any number of lunches out where he was holding court and,

And the last time he was at the footy with us was grand final day and he

And I took the time just to... I got there really early as I do. I sat down on the lounge there at Core Stadium and I reckon we just had a chat, casual chat for about 20 minutes or so. And normally I wouldn't do that. I'm normally sort of pretty focused, but I took the time. And gee, I'm glad I did because we just sat there and talked about all manner of things. And, you know, like our friendship, we met through broadcasting and rugby league, but

you know it was about so much more than that like we're both cricket nuffies and i could be watching some crappy game from the other side of the world at 11 o'clock at night and i'd send him a text because i know i know he'd be watching as well and we you know we we conversed along that so look i've lost as you have someone um not just a colleague but someone extremely close to me and um yeah it's ripped me apart

Matty, you're going to do him enormously proud at the Olympics, mate, in your swimming commentary and in your weightlifting commentary. And I'm sure when you hopefully call an Olympic gold medal in weightlifting like Davey did with Dean Lucan all those years ago, you'll be thinking of the great man. And I know you've got his binoculars and you'll do him enormously proud, mate. You know what you meant to him and I know how much he meant to you. So you look after yourself and we're sending you a big hug, all right?

Thanks, boys. I'm off on Monday and, yeah, it would have been great if you made it to be able to watch the Olympics, but it suffered long enough. Yeah, have a good afternoon remembering our dear friend. Good on you, money. You keep your chin up, buddy. There he is, Matt Thompson, our colleague, and he's calling the swimming for Nine's Wide World of Sports over in Paris.