I didn’t handle being Hurler of the Year well, admits Déise star Gleeson

WATERFORD star Austin Gleeson believes the pressure of being Hurler of the Year impacted negatively on his performances in 2017.

The Mount Sion clubman was handed the award in 2016 after a vote of his inter-county peers and despite helping his side to an All-Ireland final appearance, Gleeson believes he “didn’t handle it well”.

“Absolutely, 100pc,” he replied when asked if part of him was relieved not to be Hurler of the Year after Joe Canning was handed the award last month.

“I know it’s a horrible thing to say but it’s just the pressure I put on myself last year and having that title, it was tough to be honest and I didn’t really handle it well. It was more so myself than anybody else… I’m happy enough to hand it over to Joe, I suppose.”

Gleeson admits he didn’t reach the levels of fitness he would have liked in 2017.

“I think a lot of it was to do with putting pressure on myself and having won the award the year before. I don’t think I was as fit as I was in 2016 and that’s one thing I really notice I have to get back up.

“I had a small niggle last year (behind the knee) and it was getting at me a small bit and that took away from getting fit but that was my own fault.

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“I had a couple of different awards nights and I was thinking I would be grand and I would get back fit but it didn’t go that way. This year (2018) is going to be a lot different, I’m going to try and get my fitness back up to the way it was in 2016.”

Gleeson endured a difficult build-up to the final with suggestions he could miss the decider through suspension after interfering with the helmet of Cork’s Luke Meade but he insists it didn’t affect him unduly.

“It looked absolutely horrendous but I genuinely didn’t mean to pull the guard. I don’t even know how it happened, it was just one of those moments that just happened and there was a tough few days to be hearing it. But I was always kind of confident I was going to be playing in the final.”

With Derek McGrath on board again as manager, Gleeson expects the panel to remain intact including veterans Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh and Kevin Moran.

“I think he’s (Brick) back again. I don’t think there’s anyone gone. On June 18 (after the Munster defeat to Cork), people were asking Kevin and Brick to step aside and let the youngsters play and, there you go, the two of them have got All-Stars and Kevin nominated for hurler of the year.

“That came from a lot of people in Waterford. They picked them two out as having a bad day. If you’re asking the team who are the first two names on the team-sheet it’s the two of them.”