The Dublin hurlers will struggle to progress unless they get their key men back into their customary positions, according to former Sky Blue Joey Boland.
The 2013 Leinster champion has seen his county men struggle in recent seasons to come anywhere close to matching their silverware winning exploits (they also added a league title in 2013) under Anthony Daly.
Last year, Mattie Kenny's second in charge, saw the men from the capital mount a remarkable second-half comeback against Kilkenny, but they fell just short of downing the Cats in Leinster.
What preceded it was a demolition of Laois, what followed was a tame display in a qualifier defeat to Cork.
Danny Sutcliffe aside, a criticism of Dublin in recent years has been a forward line that has struggled to win primary possession, which may have factored into Kenny’s thinking in redeploying wing-back Chris Crummey into the attack.
Another tactical alteration saw Sean Moran vacate the six jersey in favour of a place in the engine room against Laois and Kilkenny.
Is Kenny moving players because of deficiencies elsewhere?
"That must be it," Boland, who retired in 2018, said at the launch of the new virtual AIG Health Plus portal.
"You can develop ball-winners, if you give them enough confidence and you leave them at it. It’s difficult for Mattie. If it had paid off, we’d be all talking about how good a decision it was.
"Just from looking at the history books, when you are removing key players from their key positions to fill other positions, it is never really the best route to go down."
Na Fianna clubmate Shane Barrett will be looking to put injury problems behind him this year and Boland feels his presence could help provide a strong quality half-back line if Crummey and Moran are restored further back up the pitch.
Crummey was not only an outlet in attack, he spread 1-06 out evenly from his three games last year, while Moran's nous was used closer to opposition goals.
Still, Boland would like to see them restored to where they earned their reputations in a Dublin jersey.
"I’d like to see Sean Moran (pictured above) at six, and Chris Crummey at five and maybe Shane Barrett at seven. Just leave them there.
"You need to be going through good and bad games for a period of time to build that confidence in each other. It happened me a few times, I would be put up to centre-forward because somebody was stuck. You are kind of like a fish out water.
"For the likes of Chris, I don’t think he has ever really played up there. If you are robbing Peter to pay Paul, I don’t think that is the way to go. I’d leave the best players in their best positions.
"Dave Billings told me years ago, if you are good in one position, just leave him there. Let him be good in that position and find somebody else for the hole. Don’t be trying to move things around."
After suffering a downturn in fortunes under Ger Cunningham's time in charge, Kenny's maiden campaign saw him orchestrate a championship win over Galway before falling to a shock defeat to Laois.
Consistency has been a major issue since the 2013 glory days, but Boland feels Dublin are currently a middle of the pack team, closer to the chasers than All-Ireland contenders.
"Realistically, on any given day, Dublin could be between eight and six. There is a potential to go up to number five, or four, on any given season, but realistically, they just haven’t been producing regularly enough, it’s too hot and cold.
"The Laois result two years ago showed if you take your eye off the ball for a second, you can go right down to number 10, anyone can beat you."
Joey Boland was speaking at the launch of the new virtual AIG Health Plus portal which offers free membership for all Dublin GAA club players and members
