Austin Gleeson: 'The main reason I stepped away was to try and get that bit of bite back'

YEAR OF CHANGE: Former Waterford hurler and Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup finalist with WIT, Austin Gleeson as he looks ahead to the conclusion of the Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Austin Gleeson planned to head to Walsh Park to watch Waterford against Clare last weekend but when it came to it he couldn't bring himself to actually go.

The Mount Sion man's relationship with playing for Waterford has been a complicated one at times over the years and, perhaps for his own sanity, he opted out for 2024.

That didn't mean it didn't hurt deeply on Sunday when his former colleagues ran out without him for their first big challenge of the year, in the redeveloped Walsh Park.

"The first home game in the new Walsh Park and stuff like that, that was probably the hardest it has been so far," said Gleeson at an event to mark the concluding stages of the Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon and Sigerson Cup competitions.

"I woke up on the Sunday morning and it was probably the first time I was actually thinking, 'I could be in there', you know that kind of way? Last Sunday, I found it very hard to be honest.

"I was going to the match but then I couldn't really go, to be honest."

It ended up being a tight game that Clare won narrowly. Gleeson started off watching it on TV before switching it off. He settled for social media updates on X. Then he decided to catch a hold of himself and turned back on the TV. "I said I should be watching it or I should be in there, so I ended up putting it on," he said. "It was probably the hardest day I've had so far since I stepped away, yeah."

If that sounds like an intense afternoon, consider that Gleeson has been living a perfection-chasing life for the guts of a decade now. He has loved playing for Waterford, for sure, and he stressed that while inter-county activity definitely won't happen for him in 2024, he hopes to be back next year. But it also felt like a 'full-time job' which he devoted around '20, 25 hours a week' to.

He tried to opt out initially ahead of 2023, partly to find full fitness but moreso to regain his old appetite, but new manager Davy Fitzgerald and team-mates talked him around.

"Maybe if I'd stepped away last year, I'd be back in this year, who knows?" he said.

Part of the problem for Gleeson was that he created a rod for his own back by being so good for Waterford, so early. He was named both Hurler of the Year and Young Hurler of the Year back in 2016 and has been trying to recreate that stellar form ever since. By his own estimation, he never managed it. That's a level of pressure only the ultra talented can ever know.

"The winter of 2015, we were in the U-21 championship in Waterford and the game kept getting called off every week because of weather, so we were training consistently through the winter, through the Christmas," said Gleeson.

"That probably gave me that base of fitness going into 2016 which, being completely honest, I probably never had again after that.

"Look, if I could go back in time now I'd definitely go back and tell myself not to take the foot off the pedal, I suppose. I can't get over how quickly your career kind of flies by.

"I feel like I was probably chasing the 2016 player over the last number of years and probably have never...not probably, I have never got to those heights or standards again really - fitness, hurling, everything. There is nobody to blame only myself and that's the honest truth. If I could just go back and change a couple of things, I suppose I would, being honest with you."

The good news for Waterford supporters and for those who got a kick out of watching a natural talent express himself in such colourful ways over the years - the 2017 Croke Park solo goal against Cork springs to mind - is that the versatile Gleeson will be back next year.

"The main reason I stepped away was to try and get that bit of bite back and I feel like I'm a small bit on the way to getting it back," he said. 

"Last Sunday was probably the first time that I noticed that properly. Growing up, all I wanted to do was play for Waterford. I'm not retired yet so hopefully it's only a year out and I can go back in next year and see what happens for a couple of years then."

The 2016 Gleeson? He could be gone for good at this stage though.

"I don't know what next year will bring but (I'll) probably become a smarter hurler in not being completely off the cuff like I was back then," he said. "There are definitely going to be things to change but I know myself I need to keep the foot down and keep training consistently over 12 months."

Gleeson didn't disagree with the suggestion that, at some stage, the GAA may have to start paying players for giving so much of themselves to the inter-county game.

"I definitely think there's a discussion to be had," he said of semi-professionalism. "There's no point in saying any different. For that to happen, a lot of things would have to fall in place."