Stephen Bennett happy to put his body on the line for Waterford

By John Harrington

With 4-22 scored after just two rounds of the Munster Senior Hurling Championship, it’s fair to say that Stephen Bennett’s PwC GAA/GPA Hurler of the month award for April was well-deserved.

His outstanding form is all the more remarkable considering he’s playing through the pain of two dodgy hips that required four bouts of surgery before he was 21 and will likely require full replacements shortly after his sporting career ends.

In the week between scoring 3-12 against Clare and 2-10 against Tipperary, Bennett did no training apart from hit a few balls on the Friday.

For a number of years now his training regime has had to be radically different to most of his team-mates in order to be in a position to play championship hurling, and at times that has required a lot of trial and error.

“Look, I suppose the last few years, I suppose I'd probably start off by saying, ‘I'm not going back,’ and then eventually go back and start off later,” says Bennett.

“I suppose a lot of running up and down the sideline. And then eventually get impatient and come back and play two league games and tear my hamstring like I did this year.

“I did that the year before as well, I'm sure, or maybe two years ago. But, back in then maybe a couple of weeks before the championship, you know, back in doing hurling drills. It was mostly running on your own, then you're back in doing the hurling drills. It might be do 80% of the training then, maybe not the tackling drills or maybe not the twisting and turning, it just depends.

“Then some games - like obviously you have to play something as well - so play a few practice games, because I suppose it's a fine balance between not playing games.

“I played Offaly first (in the League) and then started against Kilkenny, but that was the first match I'd have played in about 7 months since the club last August.

“I suppose you need a couple of games to get into it. We got a good few practice games in before the Munster championship, yeah. So, happy enough.”

How is it even possible for a hurler to have so little game time over a significant period of time and still have a touch as honed as Bennett’s is at the height of a championship season?

He puts a lot of it down to experience and muscular memory.

“100% I think, yeah. I don't know, I think hurling some people say you need to be doing it all the time.

“I actually think if you do enough of it when you're younger then it’s something that doesn't leave you.

“I suppose when you're running up and down the sideline, you'd be doing an awful lot of hurling and pucking the ball.

“I suppose that's not really a worry. I think I'd have always been comfortable enough with that side of it. So, no, I don't really overthink it really, which helps, I suppose.”

Despite Bennett’s scoring heroics, Waterford have just one point from two games in this year’s Munster SHC so Saturday’s showdown with Cork at Azzurri Walsh Park is effectively a do or die game.

Bennett believes the area that Waterford need to improve most in is their shot conversion rate.

“Against Tipp we had 22 missed shots, you can’t win games with that,” he says.

“We did well to come back, but we shouldn’t have been in that position either. The teams that are winning it are getting the scores.

“Against Clare it was the same, we had two chances at the end to draw the game, but we didn’t take them.

“Misplaced passes or hitting the ball at the keeper and they scored them. You have to take all your chances at this level, because it is so hard to even get on the ball.”

Cork have been the form team in the championship so far with two wins from two, but Waterford beat them in this fixture two years ago and Bennett sees no reason why they can’t repeat the dose.

“Yeah, 100%, of course. Look, every player that plays is confident. Sure, if they're not confident, you're wasting your time, do you know?

“We know that Cork, along with Limerick, are probably the two best teams in Ireland at the moment. Cork have been playing brilliant. We played them last year, we lost to them by [six] points. We beat him the year before.

“We lost to them two years before that. Look, it’s a huge game for us, just really excited, and great to have it on in Walsh Park again.

“It's a smaller stadium but the Waterford crowd were really good the last day so hopefully they'll be the same.”

Having made his senior championship debut for Waterford back in 2014 as an 18-year-old, what would it mean to Bennett if he could win a Munster senior championship medal before he finally hangs up his hurley?

"Ah, sure everything!," he says. "The goal is always the same. You'd be on about All-Irelands and stuff but the likes of Dan Shanahan and John Mullane don't have an All-Ireland but what do they have, is it four Munster medals? Clare haven't won it in a while either. There's lots of teams haven't won it in a while.

"So, yeah, a Munster title would be unreal. That is the goal. You try to get into the top three and if you get to the final you're obviously trying to win it. You saw the celebrations in Cork last year when they won Munster. It was mental, it was great.

"I think Munster is...I won't say it's as important as an All-Ireland but Munster is unbelievable. I'd take either of them now.

"I suppose when you give so much time to something you want things to look back on. The team played a round of golf there a couple of weeks ago and it was funny putting 35 competitive lads together whatever it is you're playing.

"Everyone who's playing inter-county hurling is really, really competitive so you want to win everything. That's all it is really, just to keep trying to win as long as you can.

"Every week you have a new challenge. We've Cork now on Saturday and straight away you have Limerick seven days later. Every week it's exciting. A new build-up and new players to mark. Yeah, it's just about trying to get the win again. It just comes back to being competitive and enjoying it."