AUSTIN GLEESON

TO be crowned both Young Hurler and Hurler of the Year when Waterford didn’t win an AllIreland last summer speaks volumes. Sluggish in the first game against Cork this year, I’ve previously made the point that I still wouldn’t have taken him off.

Six points against Offaly, five against Kilkenny, then two flashes of absolute brilliance against Cork. That individual goal was out of this world.

The way he dispossessed Christopher Joyce and had the vision to pick out Jamie Barron for another goal showed the range of his talent.

His discipline can be suspect though and that will be under extra scrutiny when the pressure is on today.

What’s required is a strong, disciplined and mature performance rather than a flamboyant, erratic one. We saw the good, the bad and the ugly against Cork. His performance will have the biggest bearing on Waterford’s chance of winning.