Former Dublin footballer Barry Cahill says that the Metropolitans are in for a tough remainder to their Allianz League campaign as Dessie Farrell attempts to give some of his newer players some game time.
The Boys in Blue are yet to pick up a point after two rounds following defeats to Armagh and Kerry, and will next face the side that ended their bid for a seven-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles last season, Mayo.
Speaking on RTÉ's coverage of Dublin's defeat to the Kingdom on Saturday, Ciarán Whelan said that the squad's demise had happened more quickly than he thought it would.
With the bottom two teams in Division 1 set to face relegation from the top tier, Cahill, who was speaking on RTÉ's Game On, said that he has fears for the remainder of the league.
"It's going to be a very tough league campaign for us Dubs," he began.
"I probably expected a bit of a response from the guys on the back of the Armagh performance but it wasn't forthcoming at all, which was disappointing.
"The manner of it, particularly that second quarter when the team went down to 14 men - Niall Scully wrongfully got the black card - Dublin looked very naive for that 10-minute period. Kerry completely overran them, wracked up seven or eight scores, and killed off the game.
"One of the more worrying aspects is that there wasn't that maturity amongst the group to kill the game in that period, and make sure that they were still in it. They were against a gale-force wind in that first half and they just needed to stay within touching distance before the second half.
"That second quarter killed them."
When Dublin had their full contingent restored, and the wind at their backs after the break, they restricted Kerry to just one point. But the Munster champions had switched off at that stage with the points secure, and the visitors not getting close to being within striking distance.
With so many high profile retirements over the last three years, Dessie Farrell will have a job on his hands to get the new players in the panel up to the standard of competing at the top level.
"The personnel on the pitch, the quality isn't there at the moment unfortunately," Cahill continued.
"The management team are just going to use January to April to try and blood guys as much as possible, get game time into the new guys, and try to accelerate their development for the Leinster Championship in May.
"I think they'll be in a better state at that point. There are probably six lads that were missing that are definite starters for the team.
"I would have liked to have seen a bit more urgency in that second half [in Tralee]. They should try and be more direct, as well. There is more scores in them if they can be a bit more of a kick passing team. They were a bit lateral with their play in that third quarter.
"Going down to Kerry with the form they were in [and] the motivation levels given that they were a little disappointed with their performance against Kildare the previous weekend. David Clifford and Seanie O'Shea back to their best and in flying form, so it was always going to be a difficult ask.
"I'm sure Dessie will be trying to get a couple of those experienced guys back in, now that there's a two-week break until the Mayo game."
