‘The GAA didn’t get the best out of what Joe Lennon had to offer’
Down great Lennon passed away on Wednesday having devoted much of his life, on and off the field, to Gaelic Games.
He was part of the first ever Down team to win the All-Ireland in 1960, bringing the cup over the border for the first time, and later managed the Mourne County.
But Gaelic football generally owes him a big debt as he also pioneered coaching practices and published ‘Coaching Gaelic Football for Champions’ in 1964.
The groundbreaking book was actually treated with scepticism by officials initially with Lennon once stating it took around a decade for it to be accepted. His research work identifying a branch of philosophy dealing with the area of legislation of games earned him a Ph.D in 2000 though similarly went over many people’s heads.
The three-time All-Ireland winner did design a simpler format for rule presentation that was adopted by the GAA in 1991 though McGrath reckons he wasn’t nearly embraced enough.
“I honestly feel, and Joe is not the only radical thinker in regards to Gaelic games who was to an extent sidelined by officialdom, that he represented someone who was looking at things in a way officialdom couldn’t comprehend,” said McGrath, the 1991 and 1994 All-Ireland winning Down boss.
“The GAA didn’t really get the best out of what Joe Lennon had to offer. I’m convinced of that. If he had been given more licence and more freedom and if people had listened to him more intently, then the game would be in a better place. He was undervalued and as a consequence he didn’t really get to use his influence to the extent that he should have.
“He was a trailblazer, obviously because he played on those trailblazing teams with Down but also in his thinking and the direction that he thought the game should go in. Unfortunately all he had to offer wasn’t really utilised and taken advantage of.”
McGrath, the current Fermanagh boss, was 15 when Lennon captained Down to the 1968 All-Ireland title and described him as an ‘iconic’ figure. He believes that Lennon would have been ‘bewildered’ by the current state of officiating in Gaelic football, particularly with regard to the black card.
“He cared deeply about how the game should be played and also how it should be officiated,” said McGrath. “I would say that in recent times he would have been exasperated by the conundrum that has been presented with all the various cards in the game.
“He always said it was a simple game and that the rules should be simplified to ensure that games would be refereeable. I heard him more than once say that the rule book in regard to the playing of the game could be reduced down dramatically. He felt there were far too many rules that were peripheral and were only complicating things. If he’d been given a licence to, he could have rewritten it and made it much more cohesive, more manageable and more refereeable. I’m sure he would have been bemused and bewildered by what has been going on in recent years in regards to refereeing and the attempts to control the game.”
McGrath revealed his favourite moment involving Lennon over the years. “He was living in Gormanston in Meath and the great image I have of Joe is on the Monday after we won the All-Ireland in 1991, coming back up the old Dublin road past Gormanston.
“Joe had about 20 students from the college there out on the side of the road waving a massive Down flag at the bus. I’ve got that picture clearly in my mind and it always makes me smile.”
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