Sporting highs and lows on the pitch and in the saddle

TV Watch with Dave O’Connell

Naturally, the World Cup overshadowed all else at the weekend, marking the end of some of the greatest sporting careers we’ve ever known. But that’s enough about Bill O’Herlihy.

Alan Hansen signed off too, although those eyebrows may still have employment potential if the BBC decides to construct a smoking lean-to outside its studios. Alan’s eyebrows would provide the perfect semi-permeable cover to accommodate at least 20 heavy smokers at any given time.

Billo’s departure marks the end of an era in Irish sports broadcasting because it’s hard to remember a time when he wasn’t the anchor man with the plaid sports coat, asking questions as though he’d just dropped in from Planet Zog.

Indeed those with good memories might remember that quintessential king of the airwaves, Liam Nolan, holding that slot back in the early days; now happily domiciled in Loughrea, Liam was the voice of radio and sport back when this fascination with football really began.

But for most of the modern history of the Green Army, Bill and the boys have been as much a part of the fabric as Jack Charlton or Roy Keane. They’ve been there to laud our big performances and to dive in with a high, two-footed, studs-up tackle when we lost.

The pretenders like Kenny Cunningham and, heaven help us, Richie Sadlier, couldn’t lace their boots and you’d wonder if Daragh Moloney – even with his new ‘burgeoning banker’ look – could ever play the gombeen like Billo.

Because that was O’Herlihy’s real strength – the ability to just ask questions, not to trade knowledge like most broadcasters try to, but to simply be a conduit for the viewer.

It’s different when Gary Lineker does it on the BBC because he did play at the highest level and it would be utterly disingenuous to try and pretend he didn’t have the inside track.

But of late Billo had started to believe his own publicity and that’s why it’s best now to put it all behind him. Let’s hope he brings Sadlier with him.

A different sport featured on a spellbinding Channel 4 documentary last week, as the rise and fall – and rise and fall – of Lance Armstrong was deconstructed in minute detail over as mesmeric a two hour televisual experience as you’ll experience.

This documentary started out with something entirely different in mind, because Alex Gibney – the man behind documentaries on everything from WikiLeaks to Al Qaeda – wanted to capture Armstrong’s return to glory and victory in the Tour de France.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.