As Euro 2012 begins, RTÉ Sport's Bill O'Herlihy has told RTÉ TEN he would be "tempted" to do a jig on his studio desk if Ireland managed to make the final.
During a short break from "studying my soccer" on Thursday evening, O'Herlihy told RTÉ TEN that he remains as excited as ever about anchoring RTÉ's coverage.
"This is my 17th European and World Cup tournament, which is an awful lot," he said. "It goes back to the Eighties – Seventies, I think, is it? I can't remember!"
He continued: "I enjoy it because it's very stimulating. It's good to see good teams playing; it's good to see what state football is in and it is, let's be honest, the only world game. And for us to be part and parcel of it...
"I mean, bearing in mind that [starts rummaging through his papers] 13 of the top 20 countries are in the tournament... So, like, the quality should be very high; the games should be very good; the fact that Ireland is in it for the first time since '88 means that they've a huge interest in it. I'm looking forward to it immensely, especially working with Liam [Brady] and Eamon [Dunphy] and John [Giles].
O'Herlihy also promised fans of the panel that there would be plenty of discussion during the opening day's coverage, which begins on RTÉ Two on Friday June 8 at 4.00pm.
"Basically, we've a lot of time to fill: the programme is a six-hour programme. And we'll be talking... Well, we won't be talking all the time, but there'll be a lot of talk for the first 45 minutes!
"Once the Poland match finishes against Greece, and before Russia plays the Czech Republic, there's a gap of an hour and that has got to be filled as well with comment. We'll begin the build-up to the Ireland match.
"The reality is in terms of audience reaction, our figures, no matter who's competing against us, are 10 to 12 times bigger than any other station. People know they're going to get it straight from the RTÉ panel. Sometimes people accuse us of being kind of party poopers, but our job is not to be fans; our job is to call it as it is."
Asked to call how Ireland will do in the tournament, he replied: "I'd be delighted, let me put it this way, if they made it to the next round. But it'll be very difficult because we have Spain, who are the current world and European champions. You have Italy, who were the previous world champions. We have Croatia, who got into the quarter-finals the last time in 2008, and they seem to be in very good order at the moment."
As he returned to his studies, O'Herlihy was asked if he would dance a jig on his studio desk if Ireland 'did a Greece' in the sporting sense and made it to the final.
"I'd be tempted!" he laughed. "I probably wouldn't be allowed... I'd get a funny hat, anyway!"
Let's hope Bill gets to wear that hat...
