Leitrim captain Gary Reynolds feels the best way the GAA can help weaker football counties is by providing them with more Championship games.
Leitrim spend most of their time in Division 4 of the Allianz League and on Sunday they were hammered by Roscommon, semi-finalists in Division 1, in the quarter-final of the Connacht Championship.
They now have to wait four weeks for their next game, in the All-Ireland qualifiers, and if recent history is any indicator their campaign will end there.
Reynolds feels that more games, played regularly across the summer, is the best way to develop football’s have-nots.
"You hear about the great players from Dublin and Tyrone and all of those counties and you hear about the number of Championship games they've played," he explained, speaking on RTÉ Sport's GAA Podcast Jones' Road.
"You hear the amount of Championship games they've played and you realise you've been playing the same length of time as them except you've probably one fifth of the Championship appearances that they've racked up.
"You put all your eggs in the one basket for the Connacht Championship game, you get beaten and then you've a six-week wait.
"It's very hard for a county like ourselves, who are trying to get young lads going in the right direction, when they realise that they're not getting the same string of games other counties there's not that bounce there to lift the panel.
"You have seven League games and then there's a massive, massive hold up. It's disappointing and it's tough," said Reynolds, who plays his club football with Dublin's St Oliver Plunkett’s-Eoghan Ruadh alongside the likes of Alan Brogan and his brother Bernard, two former Footballer of the Year winners with Dublin.
"These are young boys, playing at a massive level playing Sigerson Cup, we have a few lads with DCU, and then they're coming to us and having games in the League.
"Then comes Championship, with that intensity, is a massive, massive day, but if you're only getting that once or twice a year, you're not exposed to it often enough and they find it hard to perform at the highest level.
"I found, the only way you improve is games, games, games," he said.
“Unfortunately we can't control fellas and if they get lucrative offers to go to the States we can’t stop them.” - Leitrim captain Gary Reynolds
"I play my club football in Dublin now and I feel that I'm every bit as good as anyone else. We're made the same way, we play the same way and as an old manager of our, Dessie Dolan, used to tell us 'we eat the same spuds as everyone else'!
"What we're trying to do with this group of players is keep them together for as long as we can because we've had way too much of a turnover from too-small a population.
"I can't see any of our lads leaving, but I know it's a problem in other counties. We're trying to change the landscape for the future.
"Unfortunately we can't control fellas and if they get lucrative offers to go to the States we can't stop them."
