IT’S OCTOBER 2014, and 19-year-old Austin Gleeson isn’t long finished his rookie senior season with Waterford.
Earlier in the day, he lined out for the Mount Sion in the Waterford U21 hurling championship. It wasn’t his best game, and his hurling season ended in a dissapointing defeat.
Gleeson exploded onto the senior scene that year with a wonder goal on his championship debut against Cork in Thurles in May, but Waterford’s season was ended in the qualifiers by Wexford the following June.
Then, in October, Mount Sion suffered a 13-point loss to Ballygunner in the county final.
After this latest defeat with his club U21s, Gleeson is having doubts. He’s at a friend’s 21st and a few beers deep when he fires over a text to Deise boss Derek McGrath.
“I need a break for a little while.”
Five minutes later he gets a response.
“I’ll ring you in the morning.”
McGrath knows Gleeson better than most. Their paths first crossed when a 12-year-old Gleeson set foot in De La Salle College secondary school for the first time.
He coached him for years in school and, once McGrath was appointed Deise manager at the end of 2013, he spoke with Gleeson’s parents to make sure they were comfortable with their son joining the senior panel.
The morning after Gleeson sent that text, McGrath called to the house to bring him for a drive. By the time he dropped the youngster home, Gleeson was back on board.
“It was just the pressure after the first year, I wasn’t really able for it,” Gleeson says. “I sent a stupid text (to Derek) when I had a few drinks on me.
“That was it, he rang me in the morning and we went for a drive and I just explained that it was a stupid text that just came from a loss that maybe we shouldn’t have had. That was basically it. It was finished by then. That was it really, it was just a stupid (decison).”
After leading the minors to the All-Ireland title in 2013, Gleeson was put up on a pedestal as the great white hope of Waterford hurling.
“It was just a lot of pressure was being put on – from myself more than anything,” continues Gleeson. “I just felt in that moment that the demands, I just couldn’t be able to cope with them.
“He collected me the next morning, I think we were out in the gym with Waterford and we went out there and we just talked to him on the way out.
“The second he started talking I knew that it was the wrong decision to make, that I was never going to kind of leave the set up. So it was just one of those stupid decisions that I kind of regret.
“He knew probably what he had to do basically because, as I said, his man management is just incredible so the second he got me in that car I knew straight away that no matter what happened he’d always kind of be there.
“Everyone would tell you that, there’s stuff after happening and no-one knows about it on the panel. It’s between him and the player and that’s it, he won’t tell anyone. The player knows it’s going to stay confidential between the two of them. That’s the way it is.”
You know what happened over the next 24 months. The WIT student kept getting better, and was named Hurler of the Year for his series of commanding performances in 2016.
He gave two wonderful displays against Kilkenny, scoring 1-7 in the All-Ireland semi-finals. Then the Waterford U21s shot the lights out en-route to the All-Ireland title.
How did he learn to deal with the lofty levels of expectations on his young shoulders?
“Through experience and having basically Derek and the lads there with us over the last few years. Having the older lads on the panel, the likes of Brick (Michael Walsh), Shane Fives, Kevin Moran, Ian O’Regan and those lads.
“Once you have those lads you know how to cope with the pressure because those lads are after being through it all. Anything that I ever needed, all I ever had to do was pick up the phone and I had lads there.”
Gleeson has a good circle around him. After he picked up a remarkable Hurler of the Year and Young Hurler of the Year, Deise legends Dan Shanahan, Tony Browne and Ken McGrath were in touch, offering their support.
A decade ago he was a young supporter, cheering on his heroes from the stands. Now the roles are reversed, and Shanahan, Browne and McGrath are playing an important role in Gleeson’s development into a top-class hurler.
“I was talking to (Dan) the day after, just a couple of texts. The first thing he said was anything that pops up just to give him a ring, no matter what it is, because he’s been through it all.
“It’s brilliant to have a fella like Dan who has been there, to have him behind me. It’s huge. I know all I have to do is pick up the phone and he’s there.”
“(I) went back to the club on the Saturday evening, the juniors were playing in the club Eastern final. I said I would go and support the lads. Tony was there and I was talking to him for a few mins.”
Gleeson’s Waterford team-mate Maurice Shanahan battled with mental health issues in the past, and plenty of good has come out of it. As a county, they clearly recognise that even the best players are just as capable as anyone else of going through rough patches.
“(Tony) was saying the exact same again, ‘give me a phone call, anything you need.’ They were all the same, even Ken…he was saying just give him a phone call. A lot of fellas are there, willing to give me a hand and if anything does pop up, I will be sure to give them a ring.”
After taking some time for consideration, McGrath committed fourth year in charge of the Deise.
It was great news for Waterford hurling, but it’s also possible he’s back for one last crack at the big prize. Gleeson understands what’s at stake.
“The second year (under Derek), we played Wexford in the last group game in the league, the year we won the league, and at half-time Michael Walsh stood up in the middle of the dressing-room and gave a speech.
“He said he’d after been around teams that said, ‘ah, we’ll do it next year, we’ll do it next year’. He said basically, ‘our time is now to do it’. Ever since then we’re saying ‘do it now, do it now and don’t be waiting’.
He continues: “Maybe this year it’s more important than ever to do it now basically. We don’t want to be waiting around (another) couple of years, the years are going by so fast that it could be 10 years’ time and we’re still saying ‘now’.
“Look, we just want to have that medal in our pocket as soon as we can.”
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Players of the Year Lee Keegan and Austin Gleeson were in Croke Park for the launch of the 2016 GAA-GPA Opel All-Stars jersey which continues to help raise funds for the Childhood Cancer Foundation.
