‘He walked the walk’: Hurling mourns loss of Mattie Lennon
ONE of the most familiar figures in Ulster hurling, Mattie Lennon, has passed away.Indeed, the Derrynoose man was well respected across both codes, having managed the Armagh U21 footballers alongside Colm Marley and Peter Rafferty – taking up the reins with the county on a high after the Orchard’s 2002 All-Ireland triumph.However, it is the caman code with which he is most readily associated after stints in charge of his native county, Monaghan and Tyrone, then the Armagh camogs.Lennon – who hurled for Armagh at all levels - managed the county from 2006 to 2008 and was in charge of the Monaghan team that reached the NHL Division 3A final in 2012 before two separate spells in charge of the Red Hands.He had a successful first spell with Tyrone in 2014 and 2015, guiding them to a first-ever Nicky Rackard Cup title and securing successive league promotions, before returning a year after stepping away.Eoin McGuinness was part of the Armagh panel when Lennon was part of Terence McNaughton’s management team in 2022, but remembers him playing for both club and county.“Mattie would’ve been in his 40s then, he was still a real skilful, tenacious player. “Then when he came in under ‘Sambo’, he took notes the whole way through every session – now I don’t know what was in the notebook, but it showed me that he wanted to get to know the players.“When I heard the news this morning, my heart went out to the entire family because he was a big character in their house.”McGuinness is now involved with the Orchard management alongside former Antrim player Karl McKeegan, and feels Lennon’s impact can still be felt in all the teams with whom he was involved.“We were going well in Armagh when he was Tyrone manager, and under him I felt Tyrone had a real surge. He got something else out of them.“Mattie comes with a philosophy that is all about keeping yourself in peak condition, being as fit as you can be and playing with passion – anybody I’ve ever played with or know from Derrynoose, you can see that in them.“As a player too, that was Mattie; he walked the walk. That’s what Mattie instilled, and that’s his legacy right there. That’s the way they play, the way they train, they’re real passionate, honest Armagh people, passionate Derrynoose people.“The same applied when he went to Tyrone, so that was the effect Mattie had wherever he went.”
