Leinster and Ireland rugby star Sean O'Brien has called on the GAA to give a helping hand to smaller counties like his native Carlow who are struggling to compete on the inter-county stage.
An informal involvement with the Barrowsiders' footballers during the summer gave the 'Tullow Tank' first hand experience of the challenges that now departed Carlow manager Anthony Rainbow and his selectors faced.
"I was half disappointed with the involvement I had overall," he said in an interview in today's Irish Independent.
"I'd gone in and given a hand-out with different things but gradually, as I got back fitter, I had less and less time. I obviously had to prioritise my own stuff.
"I did enjoy it and I think the group of players bought into challenging the culture down there in Carlow, changing how they go about their business.
"Even if every person changed 1pc and did something a little bit better for the year ... that's what I was saying to them.
"It'll never ever change if a group doesn't come together. Keep doing the same thing, you'll keep getting the same results.
"It's a good group of young lads there at the minute, but Carlow football hasn't been very strong and you know it has to stop somewhere. There is a circle and hopefully ... I don't really want to be having a go at the GAA but they have to go and look at the smaller counties and develop them a little to get the balancing act right between the big boys and the small boys.
"But they're not going to do that if they don't have commitment from the players and if the county board aren't backing them."
O'Brien didn't stand on ceremony when the subject of talented Carlow footballers who refused to pull their weight was raised.
"I'd make no bones about saying that there's six or seven lads in the county who were top footballers who've done exactly that over the past couple of years.
"They just give up and they give in. They don't want to change it. They don't want to change the way it is down there. That's their own thing, they're being selfish basically.
"And you can tell those lads straight away. If you put them in a bunch of 40 people, I could pick out the lads who wouldn't stick with it if it got hard or tough or if things weren't going so well. They just walk away from it. That's their attitude and their culture down there. They're used to getting away with it.
"In fairness to Anthony Rainbow and his team this year, if someone wasn't committed, they just said: 'Right, that's it, we'll just get someone else in...' If someone wanted to walk away, walk away.
"Whereas in previous years, maybe somebody went off the panel of their own accord and asked to come back in then when things were looking up. One of the things with me is the group of players must be all singing off the same hymn sheet.
"If there's one lad not pulling his weight, he's ineffective to the rest. He's not helping. It contaminates the group and lads get p***ed off then when someone's after missing two months of training and comes back in.
"There's lots of things like that to be worked on down there, but it's going to be a slow process. I think they're going to have to start from the ground up again. But they won't go anywhere bar players and management wanting to change it themselves."
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