Eugene hits top form to claim Irish crown

‘Esler, being taller, would have fancied himself as the counterbut we had a plan to let him come forward and try to catch him with combinations and Esler fell into the trap. Eugene caught him and we felt we won the first round handy enough.

‘After that, Vinny probably felt he had to come forward to have a chance of winning the second round, and that played into our hands. Even though he had the longer reach and looked the stronger of the two, the cleverness and counter-punching of McKeever enabled us to win all three rounds, the last being the best.’

McKenna insisted he had confidence in McKeever going into the contest, despite appearing to be cautious about his chances.

‘At the end of the day, no coach wants to go out and his boxer will win, because in boxing anything can happen. After his second fight (quarter-final) Eugene had a cut across the eyebrow and luckily there was a few days for it to heal before his next fight, but these cuts can always open up again.

‘To add another championship to the long list won at Holy Family is great for the club. We had two Intermediate champions last year and now another one, and now he’ll move up to the National Under-22s, and maybe the Elite depending on how he gets on.’

With another Irish belt to his name, McKeever will fill vindicated over his decision to leave his former club St Malachy’s of Newry just over 18 months ago.

‘I think he felt his club had broguht him as far as they could,’ McKenna continued. ‘He wanted a change in scenery and we have shown over the last number of years that there’s no club in this area producing National champions as regularly as we are.

‘He liked the set-up and morale here as well and that’s why he decided to come to Holy Family.’

Meanwhile, a number of less experienced club members landed titles on the final weekend of the Louth Championships at the St Cianan’s club in Duleek, and they will now turn their attentions towards training for the Michael Andrews tournament on January 13th.