​By John Harrington

Waterford manager Derek McGrath paid tribute to Shane Bennett after his man of the match performance in Waterford’s 11-point win over Limerick in Sunday’s Allianz Hurling league semi-final. The 19-year-old scored 1-3 and was a constant menace thanks to his ability to win ball and run straight at the Limerick defence.

“He's a serious talent, very good player, he has a lot of natural skill,” said McGrath. “We're not trying to dampen his exuberance, but he has a lot to learn as well. He drifts in and out of games but when he's in them he's very good.

“He doesn't take the ball to hand a lot, he takes it low and keeps it on the hurley for a while - he has a unique skill set, one that will benefit Waterford in time, but he did his leaving cert last year. He's hardy, he works hard for the team too.”

Bennett’s penalty early in the second-half was the crucial score of the match. It opened up the contest, and McGrath admitted it was satisfying to see his team score two more goals and prove they know how to hit the back of the net.

“There was a stat mentioned that Clare and Limerick were well ahead of us on goals, but our stats when we were in 1B were very handsome in terms of goals,” he said. “It's good to get a couple of goals, no doubt about it, we're an absolute work in progress and nowwhere near where we need to be in terms of goals and otherwise. It's no coincidence that the penalty freed us up, I was thinking the accusation after would be that we could only get goals from penalties!

“Psychologically for the lads it's good to get a couple of goals. We got 3-21 last year against Cork in the championship, 3-23 today, there's a little more accuracy needed because it can be a noose around your neck, not getting goals. We were happy to get them today. We worked hard for them.”

McGrath insists Waterford will be going all out to beat Clare in the League Final even though the teams will meet again five weeks later in the Munster semi-final.

“Our attitude has been consistent about the league, we feel our best chance of success in the championship is to do well in the league,” he said. “That's us out there, there are no secrets, no hidden tactical ploys. We're here warts and all and that's what we intend to be in the final, though if we lost that we'll have to recover for a championship game in June against Clare. The talk about teams gearing themselves for a championship push - we feel our best chance is to be in a league final and we've been very honest about that.”

Limerick manager TJ Ryan admitted his team’s second-half collapse was hugely disappointing and will necessitate an in-depth review of why it went so badly wrong for his team.

“I am not going to look for excuses but you would have to say that Waterford's physicality and on the ball, they made a lot less errors than us in the second-half,” he said. “They drove on. For the three goals, I thought we had plenty of bodies around but we conceded them and we conceded a few scores.

“We will have to assess it, we will have to assess the whole thing and look at it, the last day was a good win against Dublin and today was a good opportunity for Limerick to get back into a league final but we were well-beat in the second-half.

“I thought at half-time, even though there was a bit of a breeze for them, thought we were going fine. We had wasted possession once or twice, it was difficult for our forwards, their system as we know, is difficult to play against. But we knew that and we had studied it, and thought we were doing fine. But once they got the goals, it was very difficult.”