Westmeath manager Dessie Dolan questioned the GAA's fixtures scheduling after his side won the Allianz Football League Division 3 title, just eight days before they have to play a Leinster SFC quarter-final.
"It is hectic," Dolan told RTÉ Sport. "This is our third week in a row and we're playing Wicklow in the championship next week. It’s hard to believe the championship is only a week away after a national final.
"The winners play the following weekend as well, so there's the possibility of five weeks in a row. It is extremely busy.
"It’s difficult to get the lads regrouped and focused for match after match after match but that’s what we have to do.
"As a supporter of the GAA, I find the whole thing too busy all the time. There are matches all over the place, great matches being chucked into a weekend that's very busy."
The 2004 All-Star feels teams are being punished rather than rewarded for doing well in the league.
"It’s great we’re in a league final but when you heard Division 1 teams saying they don’t want to get to the final it doesn’t sound great for the competition.
"We’d like a little bit of time. The lads are delighted that it’s going well but at the same time I feel a bit sorry for the effort they have put in.
"The biggest game of our year is next week against Wicklow. They will prepare. It is unfortunate they probably won’t get an opportunity to celebrate the win tonight."
Westmeath claimed their second Division 3 crown with a 2-10 to 0-13 victory over Down at Croke Park, a Jonathan Lynam double proving decisive for the Lake County.
"It was a great performance," said Dolan. "The fact that we played Down, they are a serious team, they have scored a lot of goals and have a strong squad.
"So we knew it was going to difficult. To keep them from getting a shot on target was really important. We got the two goals the other end and that proved vital. It gave us momentum.
"The first 15 minutes we were hanging on. Down run at you in numbers, they are very dangerous. We just held tough and built our way into the game, a couple of scores then a crucial goal gave us a good jump.
"From that point on it was nip and tuck. But they showed great character in the second half. We're fortunate this year the subs have made a good impact coming off the bench and I it was like that again today."
Down boss Conor Laverty was frustrated with the result given his side had led for long periods until Westmeath pulled clear after Lynam's second goal in the 59th minute.
"I'm very disappointed," said Laverty. "We came here today with great ambition and a real desire to win the game. We put a lot of preparation and work in but our standards dipped below that line.
"We started the game extremely well, controlled decent periods of it but the two goals came at vital times and they were two sucker punches for us.
"When Westmeath played with the deeper block we were reluctant to take that shot from the edge of the scoring zone and we missed a couple of key chances at vital moments.
"But this is a young group. They’re growing all the time, they’re learning, and the more times they play in Croke Park and the more big games that they play in they’ll continue to learn, and that experience hopefully will stand to them over the next number of months and years.
"We’re looking forward to Division 2 next year, we’ll have strong teams coming to Newry week in week out. Hopefully that’s good learning for the lads.
"We’re really looking forward to Ulster championship. It’s a fantastic, highly competitive competition and we know the battle we’re going to have on our hands in Newry when Antrim come [on 13 April]. The lads will get a couple of days off now to recharge the batteries and get back at it later this week."
In the Division 4 decider, Laois had too much for Leitrim, reversing their round 6 defeat on a 3-14 to 0-09 scoreline.
"I was happy with huge elements of the performance" said Laois manager Justin McNulty. "It was a big score difference in the end.
"For this team to deliver that performance after the nightmare they had here last time, conceding eight goals against Down [in the 2023 Tailteann Cup final], to bounce back from that and what happened two weeks ago, when Leitrim gave us a hammer blow, shows the character of the fellas, their resilience and mental toughness. We're thrilled for them.
"We worked on our possession play. We conceded too many opportunities and needed to close up our defence; the boys did that very effectively. Their work-rate was lifted enormously."
Leitrim manager Andy Moran was keen to take the positives from a rare trip to HQ for Leitrim.
"We came up to win. It didn't work out for us. We’re disappointed but the learnings are massive for Leitrim.
"When you come up here and see the physicality of Laois, it shows where we need to get to. We’ve made huge gains, we just need to take another step.
"We were doing so well up to when that second goal went in. We never really recovered after it."
