John O'Leary has accused Dublin's Leinster rivals of becoming 'obsessed' with them.

The 1995 All-Ireland winning captain and goalkeeper laments the fact that most of Dublin's opponents are now beaten before they take the field.

"The issue is looking at Dublin and thinking Dublin is the issue. They're obsessed with Dublin and the population and the money they get from sponsorship and blah, blah, blah," O'Leary said in the Irish Independent.

"But, ultimately, they can only put 15 fellas on the pitch anyway. So it's interesting when you hear a county say, 'We've only got a population of X and so many clubs'.

The former Dublin selector continued: "Leinster has gotten boring because the challenge to Dublin has become less and less.

"Back when I was playing - if you look at all the teams we played in Leinster finals - I played in maybe 15 Leinster finals and it was a mixture of Laois, Offaly, Kildare, Meath - there was always a challenge coming from somewhere.

"Maybe some of those counties have lost their way. Some of them need to work harder and stop being so obsessed with Dublin. Because the more they obsess about Dublin, the less they're looking at themselves."

O'Leary refuses to believe that Kildare have no chance against Jim Gavin's men in Sunday's Leinster SFC semi-final.

"Of course (Kildare) have a chance. Ultimately, for all the guff, it's about 15 fellas and one ball and four posts.

"But as the game trundles on, all that other stuff can come to the fore in fellas' minds, maybe in a tight game with 10 minutes to go.

"Because it's interesting. I was out with Louth there for a short while. Louth keep talking about that Leinster final and blaming Joe Sheridan. But why are you blaming Joe Sheridan? Because if you go back and look at it, Louth had the ball coming up the pitch and gave it away.

"The ball is hoofed into the square and Joe Sheridan has it in the back of the net and everyone is giving out about Joe Sheridan.

"It's typical. We were trying to get the Louth fellas to look at themselves instead.

"So it's a bit like the Irish soccer team blaming (Thierry) Henry for getting knocked out of the World Cup. It wasn't Henry's fault. It was only a small piece of the whole thing.

"So do Kildare have a chance? Yeah, of course they have a chance. But when the real hard questions are asked of them, I would be worried that all that other stuff might be in the back of their minds anyway."

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