'The phone has been absolutely crazy' Louth's Craig Lennon on cloud nine after All Star nod
Lennon becomes just the second Louth man to win an All Star after midfielder Paddy Keenan back in 2010.
After Louth’s draw with Monaghan earlier this year, Craig Lennon took a phone call from his manager, Ger Brennan.
Although it was a game that Louth had let slip, the result still assured them of a place in the knockout stages, bringing them a step further than the year before. Lennon’s graph was rising too - he hit his third goal in two games from wing-back that day.
“Ger rang me and he said, ‘If you keep playing this kind of way you’ll be there or thereabouts for an All Star’ and he was the first that mentioned it to me,” said Lennon. “He said, going back to his days with Dublin, what an All Star for Louth would do, it’d be absolutely monumental for the younger generations and stuff like that so that’s probably when the idea of that kind of kicked in.”
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Fast-forward to yesterday evening. Lennon was about to fly home from a family wedding in Lanzarote with his parents when Brennan called again.
“I was at the airport and he was asking me how I got on on the holiday, how was the wedding and I was just letting him know that I was flying home.
“He said, ‘It’s good to know you’re home tonight, I wasn’t sure whether you were home tonight or tomorrow morning’ and he just said, ‘Get yourself a paper tomorrow morning, you’ll like to see it. I won’t congratulate you until it’s officially in the paper’, but I kind of had got the hint last night at the airport that I had got it and then I suppose waking up this morning to a few texts and phone calls has confirmed it for me.”
With his selection at left half-back on the 2024 PwC All Star team, after scoring 4-7 in this year’s Championship, a phenomenal tally for a defender, Lennon becomes just the second Louth player to be honoured in the 54-year history of the scheme after Paddy Keenan in 2010.
“The phone has been absolutely crazy. It just feels like I’ve been about the whole day. I had to fly into town to get the suit. It would almost feel like you had a phone call the whole time, the phone was just buzzing. Mam and dad, my brother and sister, all our phones are hopping, just congratulations and well wishes, that kind of stuff. I suppose it’s all part of it and nice to see but yeah, it’s been absolutely crazy.”
Time spent with his grandfather, Steppie Gernon, and grandmother, May Lennon, after the news broke was special too. And long-time Louth fanatic Marie Lynch called to the house.
“Just seeing what it meant to the older generation was probably what hit home the most to me,” said Lennon.
In time, he’ll catch up with Keenan too.
“I was chatting to Paddy a few weeks ago at the Louth fundraiser and was chatting to him for a while.
“Paddy is an absolute gent and words can’t describe what he’s done for Louth GAA, probably one of the main reasons, him and Deccie Byrne, a clubmate, probably them two lads is what got me into Louth GAA football so an absolute gent and I’ll be in contact with him over the next day or two, I’m sure.”
It stands to reason, then, that the St Mochta’s man’s achievement will help to inspire another batch of youngsters in the county.
“Even the last week, being abroad with a lot of GAA lads at the wedding, we were just chatting about the last couple of years, the amount of young kids going about in Louth jerseys is incredible. Even walking along the beach, there was a couple of families in Louth jerseys that had nothing to do with the wedding. People wearing Louth jerseys in Lanzarote.
“Fingers crossed, the footballers are there and once we keep this conveyor belt going and hopefully this is the start of it and we’ll have a bit more success. Hopefully me and Paddy might be forgotten about, that we have a few nominations every year and get one or two every year.”
Louth’s continued progression following Mickey Harte’s abrupt departure to Derry last year made Brennan’s one of the most impressive managerial performances in 2024 but Lennon recognises that reaching an All-Ireland quarter-final can’t be a glass ceiling for the team, no more than his All Star should be for him.
“I think we’ve been on that steady incline the last few years but once you get there, it gets that wee bit more difficult to compete with the likes of Dublin and Donegal but that’s the standard that we want to be at and there’s nobody in the group that doesn’t want to be playing at that standard. Once we get back into training and that, the levels are just going to go through the roof, they’re constantly increasing.
“We’re all extremely close with each other, all get on well with each other, driving each other constantly and on a personal note, I come from a wee village and family and friends that all keep me grounded and that kind of stuff so I hope to be able to push on and continue, both personally and with the team.
“We all want the one thing and that is championships, at the end of the day, and a bit of silverware for Louth would be special and we do feel that we’re capable of it.”
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