Enda McGinley says that playing week to week can be an emotional drain on players, and not just a physical one.
On a weekend that saw Waterford and Wickow cause upsets and celebrate their surprise victories with gusto, other counties naturally missed out.
While Tipperary, who lost to the Déise, had come through a disappointing Allianz League campaign, Westmeath - beaten by the Garden County - and Leitrim - who put in a flat performance in defeat to Sligo - had off days after both gaining league promotion in the last few weeks.
McGinley told the RTÉ GAA Podcast that while the results would have been disappointing for those involved, he can understand why both counties didn't produce the kind of football they're capable of on Sunday.
For the three-time All-Ireland winner, some of the perceived lack of oomph can be put down to the condensed GAA calendar.
"There's a couple of components to this," he said.
"One is the physicality of it. In terms of playing week in, week out, that's tough. It's certainly attritional in terms of wee injuries; you always pick up an injury or two in each game. Sometimes you'll pick up the bigger injuries and that'll be several weeks [of recovery].
"That does take its toll but we've seen numerous teams able to play on a week-on-week basis and gain a huge momentum from it. You could be coming in cold into a game and get caught cold by a team that's got loads of momentum.
"So I'm not sure it's just the nature of the game on game thing.
"For me, the bigger factor is the emotional load. I don't mean that in a soft sense, but there's only so many times in a year that a group of players can really hit that peak. That special sense in training coming into a game, that special sense in the dressing room before a game; that wee bit of nervous energy that you've got.
"There's some games that are bigger than others. At county level, every game you have to hit a certain performance level. But for the really big performances you're going to a certain place."
Westmeath came into their clash with Wicklow being talked about as the second-best team in Leinster, while Leitrim's promotion from Division 4 suggested a team building a head of steam.
The Leinster side now face a nervous wait to see if they'll be playing Sam Maguire football later in the year, while the Connacht men will now switch their attention to the Tailteann Cup next month.
Their losses, for McGinley, reflect the difficulty in taking both the league and championship seriously when there's no gap between the competitions.
"For those teams who were pushing hard for promotion, they're in that place for two or three weeks because they know they're within the hunt," he continued.
"Those games take a lot of energy. It's building, there's a potential, there's something there; they can either lose it at the last minute, or they can fall over the line and get there.
"Then they've the big thing in Croke Park [league final] and they're getting the back slapped off them. They're up to Croke Park, it's a big day, they get through the final, and then there's the lull.
"Now they're into the grind again and into the provincial championship. That can really easily be reflected in a flat performance.
"Even in the Cavan Monaghan game that has to be factored in too, because Monaghan were trying to save themselves [from relegation] while Cavan knew they were saved."
Much has been made of the tighter inter-county calendar, which is now in its third full season in use. While it remains in place, many counties will be forced to give either league or the provincial championship a real go - but not both.
"That emotional load, you have to pick in a season [a point] where you're not going flat out," McGinley added.
"To go flat out in the league, to go flat out into the Ulster Championship - particularly when they don't get a break - and then to go flat out for the All-Ireland, that's peak, peak, peak and that's very difficult."
"You could say the GAA is hurting the provincial championship by having so little gap between league and championship. In time that might turn to hurting the league.
"If teams choose to go after the provincial championship they'll have to hold their horses during the league. If some of the bigger teams really want to go after the All-Ireland, they might hold their horses during the provincial championship.
"The likes of Westmeath could still have a really good championship year, and that's the same for some of those other teams that were beaten. They've five or six weeks to get things in order and that will get their energy back up again if it goes right within the camp.
"I don't think you can go flat out across everything throughout the year if your calendar means you don't have a natural break somewhere in between."
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