John Kiely was delighted with the impact of his subs bench after Limerick finished with a flourish to see off Waterford to qualify for the All-Ireland series and edge closer to a return to the Munster SHC final.

"We had a bench today that made an impact and that was critical in getting a result,” the Treaty County boss told RTÉ after the 2-29 to 2-20 victory at the TUS Gaelic Grounds.

"David Reidy came on and made a big impact. Colm Coughlan came on at wing-back to allow Kyle [Hayes] to sit in the pocket and that made us very solid there. Tom Morrissey comes on and gets three points. Those subs gave energy to the team, it wasn't what they did but the energy they gave everyone else."

Kiely insists that Limerick have plenty to work on ahead of a final round meeting with Tipperary, who are now out of Liam MacCarthy Cup contention.

"Waterford got to the tempo of it and had a very good run for 10, 12 minutes [in the first half],” he pointed out.

“We were down 15 to 10 and Cian [Lynch] comes on for Adam [English] who picked up a yellow, we didn't want to risk a red, and Cian gave us life in the minutes before half-time. We went only a point down which was very significant.

"But it was the breaking ball and us struggling to get on puck outs. We lost a few battles we would not be happy with; it was not a good spell for us in that half. When we sit down to review it on Tuesday night it will be uncomfortable viewing for that part of the game."

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