Denis Connerton says that Dublin’s dominance in the Leinster Championship makes it difficult for counties like Longford to fulfil their potential.
The Longford boss says that four in every ten players he invited to join his panel this year turned him down.
At the time they gave reasons such as work, exams and college commitments, but Connerton feels that there was another cause for their decisions.
“A lot of the more experienced guys who were asked to play with Longford didn’t join up; 40 per cent of players declined the invitation to join the panel this year so we had to go ahead with the players we have this year,” he said, speaking to RTÉ Sport.
“When you peel the skin away, the real reason has to be that they can’t see any way that Longford can win anything in Leinster. Dublin are sitting there like a massive giant looming over everyone else and they appear to invincible.
“They feel that they’ll get so far, but not far enough to satisfy the time-commitments that they would be giving to their preparations for the Leinster Championship.”
Connerton says that he understands why they feel they can’t give over their time given Longford’s position in Division 3 and Dublin’s ten Leinster titles in eleven years.
But he believes that playing for your county can bring satisfaction in other ways – particularly in 2016, which is the 50th anniversary of Longford’s sole Leinster Senior Football Championship title.
“You can look at it from that way and people have things going on in their lives that make it that bit more difficult to commit,” he said.
"Dublin are sitting there like a massive giant looming over everyone else and they appear to invincible." - Denis Connerton
“But the commitment, while you might not win Leinster titles, can be worthwhile in many other ways.
“You can measure success in many different ways also so I wouldn’t see it as being a waste of time committing themselves to Longford or any other county in a similar vein to ourselves.”
Longford take on Offaly in a provincial first round at O’Connor Park on Sunday (throw-in 3.30).
Connerton claims that his team are underdogs, though the counties finished side-by-side in Division 3 last month, with Offaly just ahead on scoring difference.
“We have worked very hard in the time that was available to us and we’ve worked as hard as we can,” he said.
“The mood in the camp seems to be very bright. We set ourselves a target of getting six points in the League and we got eight, which was quite amazing for us because we felt it would be difficult for us with all the new players we had to bring in.
“Home advantage generally brings a swing of four or five points so we will have to work hard to get back at Offaly to pull those points back in our direction.”
Longford beat Offaly in Leinster last year, coming from seven points down in the second half on to win by three
