For the first time I really missed this
Austin Gleeson quit Waterford to rekindle his love for the game... it seems to have worked
AFTER last Sunday, Austin Gleeson can testify to the validity of the theory that pain equals clarity.
Four months after the 28-yearold had rocked hurling by announcing that he was taking a break from the inter-county game, he was not part of the Waferford panel for the weekend clash with Clare and it hit him far harder than he expected.
He had watched their pre-season Munster League games online and the trip to Offaly for the opening round of the Allianz League was far enough away to be out of mind, This time, however, he was all set to head to Walsh Park but then found he couldn’t watch his former teammates in the flesh.
Even watching it on television was too much initially, so he kept up to date with the help of social media.
‘I woke up Sunday morning and it was probably the first time I was actually thinking “I could be in there”,’ said Gleeson
‘I found it very hard to be honest. I was going to the match but then couldn’t really end up going, so I watched the first couple of minutes and it probably hit me a bit more than I thought it would.
“I can’t get over how quickly your career flies by”
‘I watched the first couple of minutes on the television and then I was checking the scores on Twitter and then I felt I should be watching it and that I should be in there so I ended putting it back on.
‘It was probably the hardest day I’ve had so far since I stepped away,’ admitted Glesson, speaking in his role as an ambassador for Electric Ireland, sponsors of this weekend’s Fitzgibbon Cup final.
Not being involved clearly pains Gleeson and it seems certain he will return to the county set-up next year.
‘It was the first real time I thought “jeez, I do miss this”.
‘That was the first time that it really hit home that I won’t be in the dressing room with the lads in the business end of the League and the Championship.
‘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.
‘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.
‘It’s probably the hurt I was hoping to feel in a way that it might give me a small bit of the drive back that I’m really trying to get back.
‘In a way it is a good start and in another way it was a bit of a nightmare.’ Cruelly, that latter remark could also be taken as a summation of his career that soared at the start.
Back then he was feted as both hurler of the year and young hurler of the year in 2016 but latterly his talent has stalled to a point that instead of hurling in his prime years for
Waterford, he is keeping tabs on the Déise via Twitter.
In a searingly honest exchange with journalists yesterday, the genuine sense of regret that he will never be the player he was eight years ago bordered on painful.
‘For the next couple of years (after 2016) I was probably chasing my tail a small bit really, being totally honest.
‘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, through the Christmas.
‘That probably gave me that base 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 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 have never got to those heights or standards again really — fitness, hurling, everything.
‘There is nobody to blame for that 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,’ he admitted.
But as much as he takes responsibility for a career that has never reached its potential, what he can hardly take responsibility for is how the game went from a blast to almost becoming a burden.
It raises an obvious question, is it really worth it any more?
‘It’s a hard question to answer,’ he responded.
’There’s a lot of people who would say it’s 100 per cent worth it and there’s other fellas who would say that it’s not worth it.
‘It’s a professional gig now to be honest.
‘You’re looking at 20-25 hours a week and that’s only for fellas who live close to the training.
‘Some lads are at college in Cork, or in Dublin, or Limerick and they could be leaving at 2.30/3pm to get to the session and then drive back.
‘It’s a crazy commitment but you wouldn’t do it unless you wanted to do it.
;The enjoyment of representing your county all across the country is phenomenal and if you’re privileged enough to be in an inter-county squad it does make it worth it enough.
‘Even over the last 10 years since I started you can see noticeable changes, it’s gone very intense and that’s probably the way it has to go with the way Limerick are after changing the game and the landscape with the way they’re playing.
‘It’s about trying to catch up with them — that’s the reason it’s gone so time-consuming,’ he insisted.