Pillar Caffrey says the Dublin dressing room will be hard to walk back into following Saturday's defeat to Mayo, and he expects a period of transition to come for Dessie Farrell's squad.
Furthermore, Caffrey suggested that the impact of the Covid-19 training breach must have been greater on the squad than was first imagined.
The Boys in Blue were chasing a seven-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles this summer but despite putting themselves into a winning position in the semi-final at Croke Park, they couldn't finish off the job.
It was a first championship defeat in almost seven years and 45 games.
The signs were there after a stuttering march through Leinster and former Dublin manager Caffrey says that change will have to happen now in the Metropolitans' squad.
"There's a certain finality to what happened in Croke Park on Saturday night," according to the Na Fianna clubman.
"The team that finished the game out was a long way away from the swashbuckling team of 2017 or 2018 but there's still great pride.
"There's a change coming. Even if you look at our minors this year they were well beaten by Meath, our 20s well beaten by Offaly. The conveyer of talent (has dropped off), when you consider we got Con O'Callaghan, Brian Howard and Eoin Murchan from one U20 team.
"That's some haul from one team. Whereas last year's U20 team, who were beaten by Galway in the All-Ireland final, we didn't get one player from that team.
"They were the type of one-in-a-generation player that we were getting that was ready to step in and make a contribution at the highest level.
"It might be a bit of a barren spell coming for Dublin but we'll remain hopeful."
Indeed the Dubs haven't won a Leinster minor crown since 2017, with Meath winning three in that period. And while Kildare and Offaly have won two of the last four U20 All-Ireland titles, Dublin have lost the other two finals.
'Dublin haven't replaced the players they've lost with the same quality'
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) August 15, 2021
The panel discuss whether yesterday was a blip, or if Dublin's decline is a terminal one #RTEGAA pic.twitter.com/8Gbws8s5pl
While that might spell trouble further down the road for Dublin, the current squad still contains some of the inter-county game's truly elite players. Brian Fenton, James McCarthy, Mick Fitzsimons, Ciarán Kilkenny or Con O'Callaghan would likely walk into any other team in the country.
For Caffrey though, the fear is that a Covid-19 training breach earlier in the year - which drew the ire of former players and current politicians alike - may have damaged the squad's cohesion more than it initially appeared.
"I think the Covid breach did a lot to unsettle the camp," he said.
"There's a couple of teachers in the squad. There's frontline workers like Mick Fitzsimons, who is a doctor. A lot of players would have families who are in frontline services so it probably rattled the squad more than we thought.
Dessie Farrell confident Dublin fans will show patience
"I think the Stephen Cluxton issue was never resolved all year. Paul Mannion not coming back to play was a huge loss. Eric Lowndes walking away from the squad four weeks ago - they're all really things that didn't add up.
"Dessie put on a strong front and said these things were all manageable but when little things like this are raising their head you know that things are not right within the squad.
"They were still very close to getting over the line in normal time. The last two scores that they gave away were absolutely crazy but when it came to extra-time Mayo were on a different level.
"There will be a fallout from this [for Dublin]. That'll be a hard dressing room to walk back into whenever they resume. Fellas will find it hard to look each other in the face because it didn't have the finish they would have wanted.
"They didn't die with their boots on and their shields held high. They were a bet team once Mayo got back level. They looked fatigued and rag-balled by the end, and then next thing discipline goes out the window.
"It was a sloppy finish to it from a Dublin perspective."
For winners Mayo they now have just under four weeks to wait until the final.
They will have to wait a couple of weeks before they find out their opposition after yesterday's agreement to give Tyrone an extra week to recover from a Covid-19 outbreak in their squad.
Speaking on the same programme former Mayo defender Keith Higgins called it a "deserved" victory for his former team-mates and pointed to the crowd's part in helping the westerners get over the line.
"I was a small bit jealous of the lads on Saturday evening, I won't lie," he said.
"A lot of the time you might have a psychologist telling you not to get carried away with the crowd, or the emotion of a big game. But sometimes when you're in a situation like the one Mayo were in you need that bit of emotion.
"You need to throw caution to the wind and go after it. It was a funny second-half. They were still five points down with about ten minutes to go.
"Even at that stage you were wondering could it actually happen. But they just tagged on the scores and with the turnovers, the crowd just seemed to get louder every time. It was what Mayo needed on Saturday night."
