Joe Brolly believes Donegal have gone backwards since their All-Ireland final appearance in 2014, saying their League semi-final defeat "looked like the end of something".
The Ulster were never in contention at Croke Park as Dublin ran out 1-20 to 0-13 winners to set up a final date with Kerry, who beat Roscommon by 10 points.
"It was a sobering day for everyone else," Brolly said of Dublin and Kerry's semi-final victories. "It reminded us all of the realities of championship football now.
"Donegal famously ambushed the Dubs in (the All-Ireland semi-final) 2014. It was a Jim McGuinness job, everything was perfect. They're so far away from that now.
"They were just a mess. The primary defenders weren't marking. They look so one-dimensial coming forward. Solo-running out of defence endlessly.
"After the Bernard Brogan goal, when he had five, six metres inside the blanket defence to take the pass and stick it in the net, the game was over.
"Donegal can't play an expansive game of football. They're very defensive and once they went eight points behind... They were in the game for 30 minutes but why not have the go to keep them in it?"
"They were humiliated. They looked disconsolate going off the pitch and you don't associate that with Donegal teams. It looked like the end of something."
"Since 2007, at least one of the teams that has contested the All-Ireland final has been in the league final"
Rory Gallagher insisted after the game that Donegal were keeping their powder dry for Championship but former Armagh captain Jarlath Burns said he couldn't understand that attitude given they now face a long wait before facing Fermanagh or Antrim in an Ulster quarter-final.
"There's something that doesn't add up for me," Burns said on League Sunday. A team trains for four or five months for a league. Then you get to a semi-final and you give the team a planned week off.
"That doesn't make sense for me because when you look at the big big teams, Kerry and Dublin, they are taking it seriously.
"Since 2007, at least one of the teams that has contested the All-Ireland final has been in the league final. So it can't be that much of a poisoned chalice. Surely players want to play in Croke Park.
"It's two months before Donegal are out again and I was thinking throughout the league that they, more than any team in Ireland, would want to get to a league final. If only for the practice, to keep playing football. But in the second half they just fell apart."
