Jack Glynn in awe of 'two best players' David Clifford and Shane Walsh
Pictured is University of Limerick and Galway footballer, Jack Glynn, as Electric Ireland teams up with six intercounty Camogie and GAA stars to look ahead to the upcoming matches and rivalries across the Electric Ireland Camogie Third Level Championships and the Electric Ireland GAA Higher Education Championships. Through its #FirstClassRivals campaign, Electric Ireland will continue to celebrate the unexpected alliances that form between county rivals as they come together in pursuit of some of the most coveted titles across Camogie and GAA.
By John Harrington
If you want to become the best defender you possibly can be, then testing yourself on a regular basis against the best forwards out there is surely the quickest way to make gains.
Perhaps that’s why Jack Glynn burst onto the scene so impressively last year when he was named PwC GAA GPA Young Footballer of the Year after Galway’s run to the All-Ireland SFC Final.
Not only has the sticky corner-back had to mark Shane Walsh on a regular basis in Galway training, he’s also come up against David Clifford in UL where they play Sigerson Cup football together.
Going toe to toe with those two has given him a keen appreciation of just how good they both are, even if they pose different questions for their marker.
“They're obviously the two best players in the game at the moment, but they both have different styles of play," says Glynn. "It's interesting when you're playing with David and Shane that you'd notice small little things. Like, Shane is very athletic, he can turn on a halfpence, he's always taking on his man and is so explosive.
“And David is just so smart and it's out of the worl how skilful he is with the ball. It's just very insightful even to see how different they are but how good they both are at what they do. They're quite differnet players but are both at the top of the game. Their different styles of play is something we'll be talking about for years to come."
David Clifford of Kerry and Shane Walsh of Galway shake hands before the 2022 GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Final match between Kerry and Galway at Croke Park in Dublin.
Playing and training with Walsh and Clifford hasn’t just been an education for Glynn in terms of how to be a better defender. The standards they set in the way they apply themselves to their sport has also given him a benchmark to aim for.
“The reason they're at the top level of the game is because of the amount of practice they put in," says Glynn.
“You'd always see them staying behind after training taking extra shots and they're always there for training and are the sort of players that drive on the team because they take a leadership role as well as being stand out players.
“It's great to be able to play with both of them and see how they both operate and you take little snippets from both of them in terms of how to approach the game and how professional they both are and how they conduct themselves around the team environment and conduct themselves in training.”
Glynn must be doing something right himself in training such was the impact he made with the Tribesmen last year.
It ended in All-Ireland Final heartache, but the experience has only made him even more determined to put his best foot forward with Galway in 2023.
“If anything it motivates you more because you see how far you've got and how close you were to the ultimate goal. And if you get that extra two or three per cent you might end up in the position that Kerry were in at the end of the game.
“I think definitely the hunger and motivation is there to go at it again this and I'm just really looking forward to it.”
Paudie Clifford of Kerry in action against Jack Glynn of Galway during the 2022 GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Final match between Kerry and Galway at Croke Park in Dublin.
So, where can Galway get that extra two or three per cent they need to go one better in the All-Ireland championship in 2023?
“It's hard to know because I felt personally as a player that I really went after everything last year,” says Glynn. “It's a tedious process in terms of finding two or three per cent.
“You can go through your nutrition and your recovery and ball-skills and tackle awareness and all that, but it's really hard to hone in on a specific area.
“All you can do is try to do better in all areas of what you were doing last year and try and go outside your comfort zone and find other ways and methods that work for you just to see if you can push yourself on. Because if everyone pushes themselves on then they'll push the team on as a group.”
For now Glynn is just focusing on getting his body right. He’s nursing a niggling groin injury that kept him out of UL’s Sigerson Cup victory over UCC on Wednesday night and will also sideline him for their match against TU Dublin next week.
He hopes to be back on the pitch if they make it to the knockout stages, and feels like they can go one better as a team than last year when they were beaten finalists, even without David Clifford to call on now.
“Definitely, we feel we've gelled really well as a team. The chemistry and the bond is there. We've had to adapt the way we're playing without David, but there's lads there who have been given a chance now and are going very well so hopefully we can continue to push on and see how far we can go.”
