Austin Gleeson was all set for Walsh Park last Sunday, but in the end he found the prospect of going to watch Waterford too much. He just wasn’t ready.
It’s almost five months now since it emerged Gleeson was taking a break from the Waterford senior hurling panel, but letting go has not been easy.
“It was probably the hardest day I’ve had so far since I stepped away,” he says.
But it also confirmed the fire within still burns. He’s not a former county hurler, rather he’s one on a sabbatical right now. Gleeson won’t be returning this term, but the 28-year-old does hope to be back hurling with Waterford in 2025.
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In a wide-ranging interview, Gleeson also spoke about his belief a conversation needs to take place on semi-professionalism in the GAA, the demands placed on players in the modern game and how he spent the last seven years trying to recapture his 2016 form.
But first, back to Walsh Park last weekend for Waterford against Clare.
“I woke up the Sunday morning and it was probably the first time I was actually thinking, ‘I could be in there.’
“I found it very hard, to be honest. I was going to the match but then couldn’t really end up going. I watched the first couple of minutes on the telly and it probably hit me a bit more than I thought it would, it was the first time I thought, ‘Jeez, I do miss this.’
“It’s probably the hurt I was hoping to feel in a way, that it might give me a small bit of drive back. In a way it’s a good start and in a way, it was a bit of a nightmare. It would have been the first game I was going to in person but I ended up not able to do it.”
The flicker of the hurling flame won’t spark an immediate return inside the intercounty whitewash though.
“No, it won’t happen this year,” says Gleeson, taking the air out of that blue and white balloon before it takes flight. “Definitely not, no. I’m not even going to say it might, it definitely won’t happen this year.”
But the emotional turmoil of last Sunday was strangely reassuring, because it reaffirmed a conviction he will return to play for his county again.
“To be honest it probably has,” he says. “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.
“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 Mount Sion clubman made his debut with the Waterford seniors in 2014 and two years later he delivered an incredible season when he was named Hurler and Young Hurler of the Year, only the second player after Tony Kelly to win both in the same campaign.
However, Gleeson feels he spent the years afterwards struggling to recapture or improve on his 2016 performances.
“The winter of 2015 we were in the under-21 championship in Waterford and the game kept getting called off every week because of weather, so we were training consistently through the winter,” he says.
“That probably gave me that base fitness for 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 really.
“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.
“It’s not like somebody here or there was telling me to take a break for a few weeks and stuff like that. I was doing that of my own accord instead of putting the foot down and training hard over the two or three months of winter to have that base for January.”
The mental drain had as much to do with his decision as the physical one, but while he has stepped back from intercounty hurling, Gleeson is to remain immersed in the GAA daily after taking up the role of games development co-ordinator in Waterford city.
“I’m there about a month or so now, just getting used to all the clubs, primary schools and post-primaries. I’ve been excited to get going on it.”
On the broader question of where the intercounty game is going, Gleeson believes the topic of semi-professionalism in the GAA cannot be ignored.
“I definitely think it’s a discussion to be had, there’s no point saying any different.
“It would be a lot of funding needed as well. I can’t see it [semi-professionalism] happening over the next six or seven years, definitely not, but if it happens in 15 years it’s another stepping stone, because the game is only going to develop more professionally over the next couple of years.
“You can see how much it’s changing already with everything, video analysis, stats, all that kind of stuff. It’s so professional that it probably takes away a small bit from the fun of it in a way.”
And he feels the split season, while having plenty of good points, has added to the demands placed on some of the country’s top hurlers and footballers.
“There are some players who could maybe be on the road four years in a row, non-stop with only a week or two here and there,” he says.
“It turns it unenjoyable really if that’s the case. Grand, you could be winning and winning and winning, but you have no life really, if you want to put it as bluntly as you can.
“So, over the last number of years you can see players stepping away from the game, going travelling and stuff like that. It’s becoming the norm and you can’t blame players really.
“I know a few lads have gone to Australia in the last couple of months. They have a life out there, they’re loving it over there, it’s completely different. I don’t think some of the lads will ever come back. It is something that the GAA have to look at really.”
– Austin Gleeson was speaking in advance of Wednesday night’s Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup semi-finals.
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