Austin Gleeson: ‘We nearly made it to the All-Ireland, but nearly doesn’t count’

A long night in Dublin proved productive for Austin Gleeson recently. The Waterford hurler went up for the All-Stars bash and came home with a few baubles clinking in the gearbag: Young hurler of the year and hurler of the year.

Plus the All-Star award itself for centre-forward. The celebrations were mad (“Yeah, a great night”) and on the road down Gleeson stopped off to watch a Mount Sion junior game. He went back to the club afterwards and the celebrations started all over again.

“We were there for the afternoon, and the afternoon became the evening fairly quick,” he says now.