Austin Gleeson: ‘The outside world doesn’t know what’s going on inside the circle’

Waterford’s Austin Gleeson believes Tipperary are 15% “ahead of every other team” but the recent loss to them and Cork isn’t worrying him too much even if losing to Clare tomorrow could see them face a relegation play-off, writes John Fogarty

Inter-county GAA makes strangers of its players. That’s just the way when they are privy to the inner workings of a panel and Joe Public isn’t.

Austin Gleeson hasn’t become a hermit since he became the 2016 version of Tony Kelly and picked up the Hurler and Young Hurler of the Year awards.

He is happy to make pleasantries and his face has become that more familiar so there’s more flesh to press but he still holds his cards a little bit closer to the chest.

The home defeats to Tipperary and Cork have deflated some of the hype around the county. In the long run, that mightn’t be such a bad thing but Gleeson hasn’t escaped the post-mortems that followed.

“The first people to say to you after the two games that they’re disappointed are your family – ‘Why is that happening?’

“In the back of your head, you’re kinda going, ‘Will you leave me alone! I just want to get away from it.’ Obviously, you can’t.

“They’d be saying, ‘Why was he there? Why did you do this? Why did you do that?” In the back of your head, you’re always saying, ‘Shut up’. You don’t care what they’re saying. You know what the plan is and you’re sticking by the plan.

“And it’s not going to come overnight.

“That’s the main thing in Waterford, you have to make conversation with people but you have always have to shut up shop in trying to dictate why things are happening. It’s Waterford people being passionate more so than anything.

“It would be worse if they weren’t passionate and they were saying, ‘Ye’ll be okay’.

“It shows the hunger they want for us to succeed, in the way they approach things. We just have to stick to the process. Try not get caught up with the outside world. As Derek (McGrath) always says, the outside world doesn’t know exactly what’s going on inside the circle that we have.”

A common view held in Waterford is the seniors should take a leaf out of the U21s’ playbook and go 15-on-15. As a leader on both teams, Gleeson knows it is not that simple. The grades are “just totally different”, he says.

“Unless you play it, I suppose, unless you are out there, you wouldn’t really see the difference. It’s good that people want us to succeed, but they just have to just leave us grow.”

Not 22 until later this year, it will be some time yet before Gleeson hits his physical peak but it’s obvious from last year he and others had put on muscle.

Now the whole panel are showing the benefits of the gym work.

“Maybe last year you could hit a fella and you wouldn’t really feel an impact. This year you are hitting, no matter who it is, and you are feeling it because everyone is after really buying into it the gym and physical training this year. It’s what we needed, I suppose, instead of kind of getting bullied by different teams, to step up and stand up to teams.”

The Mount Sion man will need it as he accepts he is likely to be more of a marked man this year.

“It’ll probably be summer by the time I’ll be able to answer that in ways. But, yeah, even in the couple of games so far you can see the intensity of the other teams. When you get the ball there are two or three players around you and then when you give it to someone else there are two or three around them then. So everyone is matching each other for intensity.”

Tipperary have set the bar in that regard. Gleeson watched last year’s All- Ireland final from the Croke Park premium level and was stunned by their “possessed” work-rate.

“Their movement in the forward line was incredible. I was with my cousin at the game and the two of us looked at each other after 10 minutes and said ‘there is not one player in the Tipperary forward line that has stopped moving.’ The intensity was incredible. You could see the step up. I’d say if you put out a combined 15, Tipperary would have nearly defeated them that day because it was as if they had the trophy in their hands already before the game started and there was nobody taking it off them.”

He believes Tipperary are 15% “ahead of every other team” but the recent loss to them and Cork isn’t worrying him too much even if losing to Clare tomorrow could see them face a relegation play-off.

After the Cork game, McGrath said a drop to Division 1B wouldn’t be as big a setback for Waterford as it might have been in the past. Gleeson’s humour backs up that point: “It’s a bit weird in that our two away games we ended up winning and our two home games ended in defeat. It’s only the start of the year, it’s a good thing and maybe we won’t have another game at home as it looks like we’re better away!

“A year or two ago, it would have been more emphasised it is all or nothing on Sunday but the players are there and they have been through it all. The majority of players have won a league and been relegated and promoted so we’ll take it game by game and win or lose Sunday we are out next weekend be it relegation of the league quarter-final so whatever happens we know we have another game.”