Austin Gleeson pictured at the launch of the GAA Go Games Provincial days sponsored by Littlewoods Ireland.
By Paul Keane
Austin Gleeson threw on some Waterford games from last year's hurling Championship over winter to see what information he could glean from them.
But he got a surprise at first when the camera was trained on him and hardly recognised the player with the low shoulders and sullen expression.
All the emotions of a challenging year for him personally, as he attempted to do justice to his Hurler of the Year status, immediately came flooding back.
"I looked back over winter on a lot of the games last year and could see that it was something that I was walking around with my head in my boots, as if I had no kind of confidence," said Gleeson.
He was also the reigning Young Hurler of the Year, as well as an All-Star, all of which led to more perspiration as he pushed hard for perfection than inspiration.
"To be fair, it was not pressure coming from others or from management, it was pressure coming from myself, that I was putting on myself," said Gleeson at the launch of the GAA Go Games Provincial Days which are sponsored by Littlewoods Ireland.
"I don't know why I was doing it, but it was just that I wanted to go out and prove why I was given those awards and it just did not go for me. Everything I tried seemed to not come off.
"There were a couple of moments in games where I was starting to think, 'It's turning now', but then I would fumble a ball or something. I suppose I was trying too hard but this year is a new year and I am looking forward to it.
"You learn from your mistakes. Last year, the pressure was on me, but this year I am committed to go out and do what I did as a 16-year-old and just enjoy it.
"I am not saying I was not enjoying myself last year, but everything I did wrong I was kicking myself and everything I did right I was thinking, 'I could do better'. I just want to go back, enjoy it and play hurling as I did in previous year."
Waterford star Austin Gleeson.
Gleeson was naturally marked a little tighter last year too and smiled as he recalled exactly how up close and personal Galway's Gearoid McInerney got during the All-Ireland final.
"He followed me everywhere!" said Gleeson. "At one stage we had a sideline on this (Hogan) side of the field and I was on the other side of the field and he literally followed me until I put the ball down on the ground. I knew at that stage he was just not going to leave me alone!"
Gleeson reckons he's a little more relaxed about things approaching this year's Championship. "Yeah, it's not the thing that a lot of people might say but having the awards off my back is a release, in a way, that you can go out and there's no pressure," said the 22-year-old Mount Sion clubman.
"You don't have the title of the awards on your back this year. Just go out and play free flowing hurling again and see how it goes."
Getting fully fit again is important because he's had an injury interrupted spring and tweaked his hamstring in a club game last weekend.
He doesn't know the full extent of that injury yet, but the early indicators are that he will be fit for their Munster championship opener with Clare on May 27.
"I was just running and whatever way I leaned, it was popping," said Gleeson. "I don't know how bad it is, it's still inflamed a small bit, but we'll know in the next few days when I get a scan done and we'll see how it reacts then. It's not as bad as it was initially, but it's still a few weeks anyway."
It's a big summer for Waterford because there's a possibility Derek McGrath could step down afterwards following five seasons, something Gleeson suspects may be the case.
"If it came out that it was his last year, from the players' point of view, I think we'd put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform for Derek because the majority of the team is after coming in under him," said Gleeson.
"It would be just going out and doing everything we possibly can for Derek. If that's the case, things mightn't work out for us.
"So maybe if it is his last year, and he knows in his head it's his last year, that's probably why he's not saying it, so we won't put pressure on ourselves to go out and do it for him."
