Stephen Bennett wants Waterford to make Walsh Park a fortress this year.

I TOOK my place on the bank behind the near goal in Walsh Park yesterday and, a couple of minutes into the match, I was congratulating myself on the decision.

The recovery powers of Waterford’s youth were too much for a typically vapid League performance by Cork in Walsh Park today.

Cork couldn’t have dreamed of a better start, breaching Stephen O’Keeffe’s goal-line twice in the opening three minutes.

New Waterford boss Liam Cahill admitted he was disappointed by Phillip Mahony’s inter-county retirement but said the decision deserved to be respected.

A much improved second-half display saw Waterford finish their Munster Senior Hurling League campaign with a 22-point victory over Kerry in Austin Stack Park this afternoon.

They beat Liam Cahill's Waterford in a soggy Fraher Field with 2,976 in attendance.

It's a family affair as Kieran Kingston makes six changes to his Cork team to face Waterford in the Co-op Superstores Munster Hurling League.

Not for the first time in this Munster intermediate hurling club championship has the resolve and character of Fr O’Neill’s been tested. This provincial final victory in Fraher Field, Dungarvan was built on a fierce work-rate and will-to-win, just like they showed in their extra-time victory over Blackrock earlier this month.

Waterford intermediate champions, Ballysaggart, had to call on all of their resolve to see off their Kerry senior counterparts, Causeway, in today’s Munster Club IHC quarter-final at Fraher Field.

One of the oldest and smallest clubs in Ireland will compete in the Waterford Senior Hurling Championship in 2020.

The Kilruane MacDonagh's man was influential for Liam Cahill’s side this summer as they claimed the first All-Ireland title at the new U-20 grade, scoring 1-1 in last month’s final against Cork.

The throb and womp from the Marquee provided the mood music, literally, on Saturday night to the end of an odd week in the hurling championship.

On Saturday, the Cork supporters club, Cairde Chorcaí, had a Q&A for premium patrons, mostly Cork supporters, prior to the senior game.

Cork cruised past troubled Waterford in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, eventually winning by 13 points.

Jason Forde hit 1-9 as Tipperary shook off a sluggish mid-game spell to leave 14-man Waterford on the brink of a Munster Championship exit.

John Meyler has reacted to Cork’s defeat to Tipperary by making four changes for tomorrow’s Munster SHC Round 2 in the LIT Gaelic Grounds.

A Shane O’Donnell and Tony Kelly-led Clare spoiled Waterford’s Munster championship homecoming to leave the Déise playing a dangerous game of catch-up in the coming weeks.

Castlelyons’ Niall O’Leary is the new face in the named Cork team to take on Tipperary in Sunday’s Munster SHC Round 1 clash as John Meyler goes with 13 of the team that were defeated by Limerick in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

That Kilkenny is the only other county in the past 30 years to back up an All-Ireland final win with a hurling league title the following spring tells you the path which this Limerick group are forging for themselves.

A league final in keeping with the league itself, then.

Following in the footsteps of the ultra-dominant Kilkenny teams of this decade and last, Limerick secured national league silverware seven months after claiming Liam MacCarthy.

The league form of Stephen Bennett will ensure he will be targeted by opposing managers when the Munster SHC commences soon, writes Peter McNamara.

After Dublin lost to Clare in the 2012 qualifiers in Ennis, Jamesie O’Connor wrote in his newspaper column the following day that Dublin had played “caveman hurling”.

Not exactly get out of jail but Waterford gave Galway the slip thanks to a slack second-half from the Tribesmen in Nowlan Park.

Waterford 1-18 Galway 0-19

Here’s one thing you knew about Páraic Fanning. He’s Mount Sion and Déise hurling royalty.

You might be wondering when Pauric Mahony, arguably the best in the business with the exception of Patrick Horgan, will return to free-taking duties for Waterford.

Waterford cruised to a win in this NHL quarter-final, with the 2,753 in attendance rewarded with an entertaining first half that gave way to a second-half stroll for the home side.

A 74th minute strike from Shane Bennett decided a game of two halves in stormy weather at Walsh Park this afternoon.

So far, so good for Paraic Fanning in Division 1B of the Allianz League.

A cold and calculated performance from Waterford on a perishing afternoon in Thurles.

Clare will face Tipperary in the Co-Op Superstores Munster SHL final, having beaten Waterford in Fraher Field, Dungarvan in front of 3,039 spectators.

Mallow in early January will never be mistaken for Broadway, and the chill in the north Cork evening made it a testing venture for the 2,021 spectators in attendance for Cork and Waterford in last night’s Co-Op Superstores Munster SHL clash.

For a county under new management and still licking their wounds after a disappointing championship campaign, starting 2019 in the second tier of hurling’s Allianz League won’t do Waterford any harm at all, according to Stephen Bennett.

Waterford 1-20 Cork 1-23: So foolish we were to think Waterford would go gently into the night.

Mike Casey and his teammates don’t intend following the path of recent Limerick teams. They’ve no interest in midsummer exits and languishing at the back of hurling’s chasing pack.

Ger Loughnane, as he is often capable of doing, not only had issued the last rites to this Tipperary team at half-time yesterday; he had also effectively organised the wake, was preparing the funeral, and was just about to start shovelling clay on top of the Tipperary coffin. 

Cork 0-21 - Waterford 1-13: So, Cork remain in Division 1A and Waterford are relegated to the second tier. A springtime of false dawns and second comings came to some sort of crescendo in the snow flurries and foot-stampings and hand-rubbings in Páirc Uí Rinn yesterday, where the home side’s tús maith was bookended by a críoch maith.

Managers always want to see their best-laid plans reflected on the field, but yesterday at Páirc Uí Rinn performance could take a back seat. In a relegation battle, it is only the result that matters, says Donal O’Grady.

The two-point sideline cut still features prominently on the wishlist of inter-county hurlers.

Cork must beat Tipperary in Thurles next Sunday to have a chance of avoiding a relegation play-off after this third consecutive defeat.

After this game in Walsh Park Waterford manager Derek McGrath, who’d just seen his side beaten well by Kilkenny, was asked if the Cats had done a Waterford on Waterford.

This NHL 1A clash went to the visitors Wexford in front of a crowd of 7,567.