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18th March 2019
08:40pm GMT

He went from centre back to centre forward and from midfield to corner forward and the odd day, he was given that roving role too.
One of those days was against Cork in Munster 2017 and spotting the danger, Kieran Kingston sent Colm Spillane to stray no further than an inch from the handle of Gleeson's hurl. The man-marker supremo did exactly that and barring a couple of moments of individual genius, Gleeson's usual virtuoso style of domination was curbed.
Spillane didn't even have to puck a ball.
Here we are, two years on and the debate over Gleeson's best position still runs riot.
On the back of his destruction of Clare in Walsh Park, Jackie Tyrrell on The Sunday Game talked up Gleeson's roaming role.
"That's the challenge he poses once he's given that roaming role, he plays it with confidence and with freedom as well," said Tyrrell.Speaking on The GAA Hour, Colm Parkinson doesn't agree with this talk of Gleeson being the only roamer in the Waterford forward line.
"I disagreed with League Sunday last night. They were like, 'just give him a free role, the other team doesn't know what to do.' Sure Cork showed last year, they followed him everywhere, and they completely marked him out of the game," he said. "If you're playing a free-role, and a corner back is marking you, it's a nightmare, he doesn't care about touching the ball and you don't get those handy balls because every time a player looks up, they see you being marked. So whenever I was told, you have a free role, but a corner forward followed me out, I'm like, I'm going back in...I thought that analysis was all wrong last night."Brian Carroll added that it wasn't just Gleeson who roamed on Saturday for Waterford, with a distinct rotation policy in operation throughout the forward line.
"My take on that was that all six forwards were moving. The two Bennetts might have stayed inside but Pauric Mahony, Kearney, they were moving everywhere - picking up one of the three positions in that half forward line. One would fall in and one would fall out...I think it was overplayed about this roving role..."https://twitter.com/GAA__JOE/status/1106960593506852864 Every player needs some sort of structure and right now, Gleeson's best one looks on the wing. You can listen to the rest of The GAA Hour Hurling Show here. https://soundcloud.com/sportsjoe-gaa-hour/ballyhale-brilliance-dublin-character-outrageous-ozzie
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