Flanagan worried about 'gulf in standards'

The viability of the provincial football Championships' structures has been called into question once more following last night's events at Croke Park and Fitzgerald Stadium.

Dublin's facile 1-22 to 0-9 victory over Westmeath in their Leinster SFC opener, coupled with Kerry's 4-21 to 1-4 Munster semi-final hammering of Waterford, are the latest in a line of one-sided clashes this summer.

Obviously frustrated by the way the Leinster quarter-final panned out, Westmeath manager Pat Flanagan said afterwards: "I'm really getting worried about the gulf that's starting to develop.

"If we don't do something about it in the near future, we're going to struggle to have any sort of competition whatsoever.

"I think the GAA need to seriously look at how it's progressing. There's an awful lot of individuals putting in a serious amount of time. They need something different than coming up here as no-hopers.

"We don't have the financial resources in Westmeath or the small counties. We need to seriously have a look at it because if we don't, Dublin and Kerry and all the rest are just going to sail ahead and the rest are just going to get weaker."

The gulf between the top tier counties and those weaker, more under-resourced sides is painfully evident in the Munster Championship where, in the space of a week, Kerry have meted out crushing defeats to Tipperary (17 points) and Waterford (26 points) and Cork demolished Limerick by 18 points.

Only Clare stand between defending Munster champions Cork and a place in the July 7 final against Kerry, with Cork having beaten the Banner men by 12 points in last summer's provincial decider.

Kerry and Cork have shared out the last 20 Munster titles between them. Clare, back in 1992, were the last county other than the top two to be crowned champions of the province.

In Leinster, Dublin have had a clear dominance in the modern era as winners of seven of the last eight Championships.

The Dubs' 16-point dismissal of Westmeath comes on the back of runaway victories by Louth (10 points against Laois) and Westmeath (11 points against Carlow) in Leinster's opening rounds in recent weeks.

The trend has continued in Connacht with Leitrim enjoying a 24-point winning margin over New York and Mayo, the defending champions, had 17 points to spare on old rivals Galway.

The Ulster Championship has definitely been the most competitive of late, although last year's Anglo-Celt Cup decider did see Donegal emerge as 11-point victors over Down.

Keen for the provincial Championships to be split into better-matched groupings, Flanagan added: "What I'd do is have four groups of eight in provincials. Split them up into two groups of four.

"The two top teams of those groups would go into your Leinster semi-finals and finals. The other four teams would play off provincial semi-finals and finals as well. I'd develop a second meaningful Championship."

Another problem facing Flanagan and managers whose teams are without a match until the first round of the All-Ireland qualifiers on June 29 is keeping their players focused on Championship football and giving them the incentive to keep training.

Already this week Laois have lost two key players to emigration and four members of the Armagh panel are reportedly bound for America.

"We go into the qualifiers now and let's be totally honest, the pressure is going to be on players to go back to clubs, the pressure is going to be on players to go to America," admitted the Offaly native.