NEWS:WATERFORD SENIOR hurling team selector Pat Bennett believes manager Davy Fitzgerald is being unfairly targeted by some leading referees.

Bennett has spoken out ahead of next Sunday’s Munster championship semi-final against Limerick at Semple Stadium, a game that will be overseen by former All-Ireland final referee Barry Kelly.

Former player Bennett has also insisted referees are “going at” Waterford in big games.

Match referee James Owens of Wexford reported former Clare goalkeeper Fitzgerald for verbal abuse following the clash with Tipperary at Semple Stadium on March 5th.

Fitzgerald was left fuming and claimed he was the victim of mistaken identity for comments attributed to him. Waterford presented a strong case against a proposed 12-week ban, which was reduced to four weeks.

Bennett said: “I’ve been watching Davy the last two years and there’s this notion about what he’s like.

“As a player, he was very animated, but as a manager he seems the same as most other managers. I haven’t seen anything outrageous from Davy. He gives out times, like most managers do, but I’ve seen others do so much worse and yet he’s been the guy that has been targeted. I think some of it has to do with his playing days and his fiery reputation.

“Take the league game against Tipp, there were two sendings-off (Waterford pair Shane O’Sullivan and Clinton Hennessy) and he didn’t question either of them. The only thing he queried was a yellow card for Seamus Prendergast that happened in front of him and he amazingly gets suspended for it, for something he never said or did.

“It’s hard for me to be silent on it because I’ve seen the guy in action on the line. That’s the baffling thing for me because refs do seem to be going at us, especially in the bigger games.”

Waterford were also desperately unhappy by the performance of referee Diarmuid Kirwan in last week’s provincial Under-21 quarter-final clash with Tipperary.

Kirwan had enraged Tipperary fans with his performance against Kilkenny in the 2009 All-Ireland final, but his decision to send off Owen Whelan early in the second half of last week’s tussle contributed to a home victory.

Bennett reflected: “It isn’t just one or two decisions that are going against us. There was the Under-21 game against Tipperary last week. I had Tipperary people coming up to me after the game last week. They said now ye know how we felt two years ago and they also said that we were hard done by.

“A lot of decisions seem to be going against Waterford and a lot of it seems to be going against Davy and working its way down through the teams.”