Despite having never faced Clare at senior level before, Austin Gleeson knows what to expect in Sunday's hurling league decider.
Speaking at the hurling league final launch in Croke Park today, the 20-year-old said: "In my first year on the panel we actually played Clare in Ennis but I was on the bench that day getting over a hamstring injury.
"We didn't cross paths since so Sunday is going to be my first time to play against Clare in senior."
He continued: "We're expecting hard hitting and we know we've a really tough task ahead of us. No matter who you are playing you are going to get that nowadays because everyone is trying to match each other.
"We know that Clare are after stepping up their game from last year. We know that getting over Kilkenny in the semi-final is going to give them a boost in confidence.
"It's going to be a very big game, it's going to be 50-50 and it's going to be a lung buster on Sunday."
The Mount Sion star went on to highlight the importance of league success ahead of the championship.
"Last year it gave us massive confidence going into the championship. We just believed in ourselves, we believed that on our day we could beat anyone.
"In my opinion the two best teams in the country last were were Kilkenny and Tipp and they were the two teams that bet us last year. Other than that, we got over the line against everyone else.
"It's massive to keep winning to keep the confidence up."
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