WORLD coach of the year Billy Walsh believes Bernard Dunne’s appointment as High Performance director can mark “the dawning of a new era” for Irish boxing.
Dubliner Dunne was finally confirmed in his new role last Thursday, becoming the first person to officially fill the director’s position since Gary Keegan’s departure in 2008.
Walsh himself carried out the duties associated with the post, as well as being Irish head coach, until leaving to take over Team USA in 2015.
And he admits he was tempted to request an application form when the post was first advertised back in January.
“I was going to do it for a laugh, for the fun of it to see would they give me an interview,” he said. “I had no interest – unfortunately, or fortunately, I’ve moved on and have other ambitions here.”
Joking aside, Walsh is backing Dunne to be a major success.
He was sounded out by the former world super-bantamweight champion before applying for the job, and has been tipped to help bring the good times back to Irish boxing after the disappointment of last summer’s Rio Olympics.
“It’s a really good news story for the IABA [Irish Athletic Boxing Association] which they haven’t had in quite a while, and which they need. It’s a really good fit,” said Walsh.
“I was lucky enough to be involved with him before the 2000 Olympic qualifiers where he was very unlucky not to qualify, he was our best prospect, and he will go in on his terms and develop the team as he sees fit.
“There’s a lot of expertise and he’ll bring his own team together as Gary [Keegan] did, as I did, to develop a world class team.
“The talent is there in Ireland, it’s now about putting a system in place that can harness all that talent and get it to deliver those performances that we have seen over the last decade.
“It’s going to take him a few years to find his feet as it did with us. He has to come in with a clean brush and bring in his own support team around him. That’s the key to his success but I think it’s the dawning of a new era for Irish.
“It’s a great appointment.”
Dunne said at his unveiling that he won’t consider what changes need to be made to the High Performance until he has had some time in the job, but there is no doubt that some difficult decisions lie ahead.
Yet Walsh feels Dunne has the strength of personality to make his own stamp when the time is right.
“He’s probably like myself in that he doesn’t do politics too well.
“But Bernard would’ve had issues with the IABA at times during his career as a boxer so he’s not going to take any prisoners. He knows what good looks like.
“He’s a world champion, he was a great amateur boxer as well, so that will stand him in good stead in that it’ll earn him respect from the people around him but it only gets you on the first rung of the ladder – you have to climb up the rest and show what you can do.”
Walsh points to Keegan as the perfect example for Dunne to try and emulate, as he played a crucial role in the successful development of the High Performance unit from its earliest days until the success of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
“It’s absolutely vital, it’s the whole leadership of it,” continued Walsh.
“This guy has to have the vision of where the team is going and what they want to achieve, and through that he has to inspire his team and the coaching staff around him.
“With Gary Keegan, Irish boxing was very lucky it got one of the greatest directors and one of the best guys I’ve ever worked for. Not just as a colleague but as somebody who would challenge you, made you push the boat out and made you look at yourself and challenge yourself and the team to become better.
“He understood the nuances around performance – creating the right environment for the team to perform. As a result, they became one of the best teams in the world.”
It seems a long way away from where Irish boxing finds itself now, having finished 66th in Rio and seen its Sport Ireland funding cut from 900,000 euro to 700,000 last month.
But Walsh says Dunne will just have to play the long game if the good times are to return.
“If you look at the High Performance when it started, employing four people, we were on 200,000 euro - we finished up on over a million.
“He’s starting all over again with a younger team. If they build again and have success, the funding will come back.”
