The Warriors face Wasps at Firhill tonight (ko 7.30pm) and the Glasgow coach says he's delighted with the level of competition for places in his team.
"I think this is the strongest squad I have had in my time at Glasgow," said Sean in the Scotsman. "There is some fantastic competition right the way through the squad and even with the young lads we have brought in. I have been really impressed with Dave McCall, Peter Murchie and Peter Horne – three Scottish youngsters who are really holding their hands up already.
"We saw a good try from Peter Horne in France in pre-season, Peter Murchie is a brave lad who can put hits in and he'll start against Wasps, and Dave is a lad who dabbled at pro rugby a few years ago, but wasn't ready, and has put his hand up again, been given a chance and has taken it. He has worked really hard and there is real promise there. Jon Welsh is another talented Glasgow lad, and I'm really looking forward to seeing him go against Wasps.
"We have real talent and competition, but what we need now is consistency. When we do play at our best we're a match for anyone. I don't like harping back to Toulouse anymore, because it's a lone star, and we've had a real rollercoaster ride, but we've worked hard in the past three months at addressing that.
"We were just one kick away from finishing fifth last season, but finishing seventh was actually a good thing in the sense that it made sure we all took a real good look at ourselves, certainly in our performances as coaches and what we were doing, and also with the squad of players we had.
"There was a lot of debate even among the coaches – we took our game apart over the last three months – and it's been pretty challenging, but also really exciting with what the players have bought into and taken things forward. Alastair Kellock is captain again and he has done a great job in pre-season and I believe we have a special group of players here."
Al indicated it wasn't just the coaches who had done some soul-searching over the summer break, saying: "There has been a lot of honest chat among the players as well as the coaches, and speaking with the coaches – it's very much a two-way thing – because that (seventh] was nowhere near where we wanted to be last season.
"We got ourselves into a very good position by December last year and then didn't kick-on, so we have to do the same at the start – and we have set small targets – but making sure this season that we don't have the lapses, which comes down to getting that consistency."