COULD the explanation actually be that weaker counties are starting to give up? Are players in, say, Westmeath, Roscommon and Laois panels cutting corners?
It is a cliche to say they all train to exactly the same level. And it can't be true. There will always be variations from county to county.

I suspect if you delve deep into some of those counties who have shipped heavy beatings in recent weeks, you will find evidence of corner-cutting.            

It might be that they know the players aren't there. It might be that they have lost faith in the manager. It might be that they never had faith in the manager in the first place.

It might be that they are keen to just get back to their clubs. It might be that some players just don't have the required commitment in the first place. It might be that the manager has lost the will to make the hard calls too.

I read Martin Flanagan's interview in yesterday's Sunday Tribune and concluded that if I were a Westmeath supporter, I would have turned around on the road and gone home.

It was self-indulgent beyond belief. The mindset it revealed - on the cusp of the biggest game of the year for his team - was damning. When I read it, I texted a friend to say that Tomas O'Flaharta would not have tolerated a player with this attitude a year or two.

In the search for global reasons for hammering, we may miss the obvious points. Maybe Westmeath didn't prepare properly this year. The Flanagan example would suggest they didn't: he has been allowed to drift around the middle of the field this year, without having to take up any serious marking or tracking-back duties.

It was a luxury they could scarcely afford. It wasn't the only reason Westmeath lost yesterday, but it was symptomatic of a deeper malaise. Last year, Westmeath were a serious proposition, as they have been for much of this decade. Tomas O’Flaharta was at the heart of the second and third phases of the revolution started by Luke Dempsey.