Waterford top scorer Stephen Bennett has shot 4-69 so far this season across all competitions.
The Ballysaggart man says that injured captain Pauric Mahony has been a big help behind the scenes.
"He still turns up to training and he still comes to matches, which is hard in fairness. I don't know would a lot of players be able to give their time every night when they're seeing no reward. The first day against Cork, he was out in the warm-up, throwing sliotars to me and telling me a few things. He got the operation then so he wasn't able to for the last two games. He's still in and out and I'd be onto him the whole time. If anyone is going to come back, it will be Pauric. Tadhg De Burca is after helping him through it. It’s fairly hard for a fella to be missing out, especially in his first year as captain, but he's still turning up and still trying to offer something."
Bennett is enjoying the winter championship. Liam Cahill's side face Kilkenny at Croke Park on Saturday evening with an All Ireland final place at stake.
He doesn't mind playing for a third week in a row. "People are saying that it's a bad time of year to be playing it but everyone is loving it. We're so lucky that we get to go down training, meet up with our friends and play at the weekends. The weeks are flying by because we have a match to focus on every week. It's really enjoyable, it's one of my favourite years. It's so tight and so condensed."
