Ireland lost one of its legendary broadcasters today in Bill O'Herlihy and according to his long-time colleague and friend John Giles, the late presenter was the figure who made the RTE TV soccer panel work.
John joined us on Off The Ball tonight as we remembered a man who was a constant on our screens.
"I think Bill was probably the most important person on the panel," said John tonight as he looked back on a partnership which lasted from 1986 to last year's World Cup final when O'Herlihy retired.
"Without a good presenter and no matter who you have as an analyst or pundits, if the right questions weren't asked, then they're not going to be able to show what their expertise is supposed to be. Bill was brilliant at asking the right questions, doing it at the right time and didn't dominate the show at all. I always thought Bill was like a good referee. Good referees, you don't see them and you don't notice them because they're not showing off. Bill didn't try to dominate and he did the job as professionally as you could do and he was brilliant at what he did."
Highlighting O'Herlihy's journalistic background, he reminisced about how the Corkman made a point of getting on top of stories through the newspapers.
Looking back at another great quality, John also added: "He never pretended to have a great knowledge of football. He never said 'in my opinion, the midfield did well or they were poor at the back or good up front, what do you think, Eamon?' He never did that. He would introduce the question and just say 'what about that, John?' or 'what about that, Liam?' Bill very seldom, if you look back, gave his opinion on the game."
We were also joined by former Olympic swimmer Gary O'Toole, who worked alongside him, and The Sunday Independent's Declan Lynch to look at other aspects of his career and you can listen back to our full Bill O'Herlihy tribute via the podcast.
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