Austin Gleeson never became a true great but his brilliance was irresistibly attractive

In Waterford’s win over Cork in the 2022 championship there is a 21-second sequence early in the game where Austin Gleeson becomes a double espresso with a Red Bull chaser. He makes a clean block on Conor Lehane, 25 metres from the Waterford goal, and when the ball breaks to Séamus Harnedy, Gleeson keeps going, flattening the Cork player with a shoulder.

The ball ping pongs for a few seconds in a force field of bodies, before Cork recover it and Niall O’Leary, Gleeson’s chaperone for the afternoon, shapes for a shot at goal. Gleeson charges at the Cork defender, executes another perfectly timed block with his hurley, and makes a body-hit on O’Leary in the same movement.