Over the weekend, Carlow, Longford and Wicklow all exited the Leinster Football Championship, while in Ulster, Antrim are out.
Those teams now face a lengthy wait for the qualifiers. It could be up to six weeks before they next play in the Championship.
That prolonged period of time means some counties may hemorrhage players in the interim. The lure of a summer in the US is too much for some.
It's an issue which was raised by Dessie Dolan and Ciaran Whelan on last night's Sunday game. Whelan believes the structure of the Leinster Championship requires altering to provide increased games for these teams, giving players more experience and a reason to continue playing football during the summer.
There is a cohort of teams out there who don't have their best players on the field because they won't give the commitment. There's a lot of turnover of players, the best players are not playing.
It's probably because they have very little hope. It's difficult for them, they don't see any reward at the end of it.
Their delegates are going to Croke Park saying they want to retain the existing structures. So, we're not moving, we're not getting anywhere.
Leinster football, there's a lot of teams in Division 3 and Division 4. Johnny Magee [Wicklow manager] makes a good point that they've got two games. They've got a lot of debutants. They don't get to built, they don't get to see these guys, they don't get to gain experience.
We're probably at a stage where if we're not going to touch provincial structures - which we know is very difficult - we should at least have some sort of round robin system within Leinster to get these teams a little bit more game time and a little bit more experience.
There is a huge problem, the gap is widening.
The best players are not turning out for the weaker counties and it's something the GAA has to start looking at.
