Colm O'Rourke looks at the three rounds played thus far in the top two tiers of the Allianz Football League and sees a display of the poor state in which Leinster football finds itself.
Kildare and Dublin occupy the bottom two rungs of Division 1. Meath and Offaly are in the same spots in Division 2.
Colm O'Rourke: Leinster football is in crisis
"You could see a situation where Dublin and Kildare go down to the second division and you would have no Leinster team in the first division for next year at all, which would be quite a reflection," the Meathman told the RTÉ GAA Podcast.
"You could have [Meath and Offaly] contesting the Tailteann Cup rather than the All-Ireland Championship [if they're relegated to Division 3].
"Leinster football is in crisis and it was sort of coated over by Dublin’s dominance for seven or eight years, but there are serious structural defects now in the province."
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Dublin are one of three teams, along with Offaly and Wexford, currently without points in the league. This weekend, they face Kildare in Newbridge with victory far from the certainty it would have been in recent years.
"The Dublin era is over, so my idea of splitting them into three or four maybe won’t gain as much traction," said O'Rourke.
"But I think the same principle still applies. It should be looked at underage. This U17 competition, I hope it's looked at more as a development competition, than a serious one, and Dublin, Cork, Galway and other places can put in more than one team.
"The fact they were able to re-emerge after one brilliant team with the likes of the Brogans, Connolly, and Flynn [retired], and were then able to put in even better players with Fenton, Kilkenny, Howard, Con O'Callaghan. That era is gone. This next wave is not coming. They may have an OK team but they're not going to dominate for the next 10 years in the way they did.
"It also means that the Leinster Championship, for the first time in living memory, could actually be competitive this year."
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