Walsh and Antia a knockout combo, says Nevin
“Listen, you don’t want to get rid of those guys,” he said. “They mean everything to boxing. You’re not going to get anyone in the world as good.
“My club coach, Brian McKeown, took me so far, he believed in me all along. Brian passed me over to high performance then, and Brian is a top-class coach. But saying that, Billy and Zaur are just out of this world.
“You can’t let them go, you have to keep them. If they want to make Ireland boxing get better, and it is growing, it’s them two people making it happen.”
The coaches’ contracts are up for renewal but, such has been their success, several other countries have already tested the water about their availability. However, Nevin believes they deserve a chance for rescuing the country’s Olympics.
“They’re not getting the recognition and I’d love to see them getting the recognition. As it said in the paper today, they’re the least-paid coaches of all sports in Ireland — that’s ridiculous. I think they should be getting more than Trapattoni.
“Trapattoni’s a great manager but they are after bringing back four medals again. It’s unbelievable.”
Walsh and Antia’s contracts are not up for discussion until April but the Irish Sport Council’s Director of High Performance, Finbarr Kirwan, emphasised the importance of keeping the team in place until Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
“Obviously the issues of recruitment and retention are a matter for the IABA but we’d be happy to consider any proposal that they’d put forward,” said Kirwan.
“I think one of the things that worked well after Beijing was the fact that there was a system of support in place for boxers so that they didn’t have to turn pro.
“We hung on to Kenneth Egan, hanging on to Paddy Barnes, hanging on to John Joe Nevin and Darren O’Neill as well. We would hope that we can do the same again after London. You look at somebody like Michael Conlan — really special talent — and he is still only 20.”
The high performance unit was set up in the National Stadium in 2003 the year before the Athens Olympics. Ireland had just one boxer qualified for Athens but the driving force behind the system, Gary Keegan, predicted they would have three boxers and one medallist in Beijing. They exceeded that with five boxers qualified and three medals.
The team they put in place then still looks after the Irish boxers with team physio Conor McCarthy from Tramore, performance analyst Alan Swanton from Bantry, strength and conditioning coach, John Cleary, and sports psychologist, Gerry Hussey, very much behind the team.
That management group, minus Keegan who heads up the Institute of Sport, has brought Irish boxing to where it is at the moment and that’s the team Olympic silver medallist, John Joe Joyce, wants to see kept.
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