The Donegal pundit insisted that every county has 30 players to be competitive and cited the performances of Monaghan and Sligo in recent weeks.

“The important thing in all of this is the smaller counties should stop feeling sorry for themselves. They need to take it to another level and want to join the big boys.

“Good performances are no good. You have to win games and get over the line. Everyone has good enough footballers to be competitive.

“There are 30 good footballers in every county. Monaghan are proving this at the moment with one of the smallest populations in the country. Players, management and county boards need to row in and get the business people in behind it.”

Martin McHugh: "There's 30 good players in every county." What do you think? #SundayGame

— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) June 28, 2015

The discussion centred around the defeat of Leitrim in the qualifiers to Louth with Des Cahill pointing out that there are parishes in Dublin the size of Leitrim.

Dessie Dolan was also sympathetic to the plight of the smaller counties pointing out that the same benefits and privileges may not be available to smaller counties.

“It is difficult from a players’ perspective as you wonder if a player from Leitrim will be treated the same way as a player from Dublin, Kerry or Donegal.

“Holidays, weekends away, team nutritionists, stats people. Getting business people to row in behind a team is no guarantee of success” added the former Westmeath star.