Waterford’s Austin Gleeson aware that shortcuts don’t lead to success

For as long as Waterford hurling fans follow Austin Gleeson, their minds will be drawn back to his wonderful solo goal on his championship debut against Cork in 2014.

For the player himself, however, his point from a sideline cut 30 minutes into that contest is increasingly becoming the thing of wonder.

It came easily to the Mount Sion teenager at the time as he swung his hurl at the sliotar and watched it sail off on a left-to-right curving arc and over the Cork crossbar.

But two seasons on, while the versatile Gleeson remains a huge part of Waterford’s general renaissance, his ability to dissect the posts from sideline cuts has strangely deserted him.

Shortcomings

It’s a measure of Gleeson’s maturity that, still just 20, he’s happy to dissect his shortcomings in public and it would be no great surprise to see him convert one in Thurles on Sunday.

“I suppose it’s probably my own fault that they’re going that way. I don’t practice them as much as I should because when I started to do it, it kind of came naturally to me,” said Gleeson. “It was just like luck.

“But now I expect to put them over every time and I probably put too much pressure on myself to put them over.

“I suppose it was more off-the-cuff in the past, I was hitting them and they just seemed to go over. Now I’m trying to have them too perfected, I suppose, and they’re just not going right. Usually when I hit them they curve almost in a ‘C’ shape.

“But whatever is happening now, when I hit them they go up and drop so I just have to look at that in my own way and see what way I can improve.”

As for the goal that Gleeson scored that day, when he slalomed through a clutch of Cork defenders before unleashing a bullet shot to the net, one wonders if he could do that again, with teams now flooding men back into defence.

"I don't see why I couldn't," said Gleeson. "A lot of that goal was down to the movement of Brian O'Sullivan and Shane Walsh because they took their men away and a gap just opened up and I just went through it.

“It would be harder obviously because there are more defenders around now and everyone’s fit as a fiddle, there is always someone else waiting to hit you.

“You just have to learn to take those hits when they come and recover as quick as you can and take your opportunities.”

Gleeson said that putting more muscle on growing bones has been a big part of the evolution of this young Waterford team as they seek back-to-back league titles.

"I have probably been in the gym a lot more because last year against Kilkenny in the championship, it really showed that we needed it," said Gleeson. "Looking at a couple of lads on our team, Shane Bennett, Patrick Curran, Tadhg de Burca, we are after upping our muscle mass and the gym has helped a lot.

“That was the main aim during the winter. It’s paying off for us and we are all feeling fit and stronger now.”