Great cutting in Waterford’s rising star of hurling - Austin Gleeson

You might as well admit it. The goal made you sit up and take notice.

Austin Gleeson carried a glittering reputation into the Waterford senior team last year, having been a dashing centre-back on their All-Ireland-winning minors in 2013, but Munster championship debuts can be tricky.

Unless you score the goal Gleeson managed as a wing-forward against Cork last summer in Thurles, that is.

Soloing through an opposing defence before burying the ball past the All-Star ‘keeper is inclined to get people’s attention.

“It all opened up,” says Gleeson now about the goal.

“Shane Walsh made a great run one way and Brian O’Sullivan made a run the other way, to draw his man across the field, so it opened up in front of me and I said I’d go for it.

“It was great, but I needed them to do that work for me as well to create the chance.”

The game finished level and went to a replay which Waterford lost, but since then they’ve been on the up. They won promotion from Division 1B and then collected the national league trophy a few weeks back against the same opposition, giving an utterly dominant display in Thurles.

In that game, though, Gleeson wore the number six jersey but played as a wing-back; though he ranged forward to score a superb point from the sideline in the first half, is his day as a wing-forward done?

“As long as I have a jersey I don’t mind, to be honest, but I like playing in the backs because you have the chance to go and attack the ball.

“In the way we play I have the freedom to go up the field if I want because I know there’ll always be somebody behind me to cover.

“That talk about us being the Donegal of hurling . . . it’s just workrate, pure and simple, that’s key for us. If we keep up the workrate that’ll do us fine — we were the highest scoring team in the league and we’ll be hoping to continue that.

“No matter who we play we go all-out to win, we know well that we have a lot to improve on after the league final. It was great to get the win and all of that, but we’d have things that still need to be worked on and we’re well aware of that.” After the game one of the first of the Deise pitch invaders was Ken McGrath, who wrapped his young clubmate in a bearhug. The circle was complete for Gleeson.

“Ah yeah. Growing up Ken was my childhood hero, basically, for what he did for Waterford and Mount Sion. Now he’s managing Mount Sion as well, it’s just fantastic to see him back with the club after all he went through. “Growing up, Mount Sion or Ballygunner were winning county titles every year, my family are all massive Mount Sion supporters, so it was easy for me to get into it, it was inevitable really. I’m delighted but I’m also taking it one step at a time.” There’s a sense of a rising tide in Waterford hurling at present, and when Gleeson refers to his first encounter with Derek McGrath as a coach, there’s a little vignette of how that renaissance has unfolded.

Gleeson was playing in the White Cup — U15 Munster colleges hurling — for De La Salle, coached by McGrath, which you could probably have guessed.

That they were beaten the same day by Blackwater College from west Waterford hints at the strength in depth within the county.

“Derek would have also coached us at Dean Ryan and Harty level as well, so I’m fairly used to his management style, though obviously it wasn’t as detailed that time.

“He loves hurling — it’s his life — so I knew what to expect when he took over as Waterford manager.” If McGrath’s meticulous preparation was a given, the increased interest in the hurlers’ fortunes wasn’t guaranteed. Gleeson has noticed that change since the league final, however. More talk. More support. More expectation.

“There is, there’s a good bit more interest than there was.

“You’d notice it from your friends and family, they all want to know ‘will ye beat Cork’, ‘who’s going to be on the frees’, all of that kind of stuff. That’s great that there’s so much interest now, but you’ve to watch it as well, and just take things day by day until the match comes.

“It was a great feeling, obviously, to win the league final. To have so many people looking for a picture or an autograph was fantastic. “It’s great crack for the kids, and for the adults, too — the whole thing brought a bit of fun back to hurling in Waterford. It’s five years since we won something, so hopefully we’ll see where it takes us.” The business student in Waterford IT finished his exams a few weeks ago, so the summer focus now is on the Cul camps and working with his uncle.

How did those exams go?

“Once you put the head down you should be grand,” he says. “If you slacken off you’d be in trouble, so you have to put the work in.” An attitude that works in a lot of areas.