Ger O'Brien, Stephen Elliott and Philip Quinn joined Richie McCormack for Off the Ball's Saturday Panel.
St. Pat's have endured a difficult season so far and sit only two points above the relegation zone as the season draws to a close.
Liam Buckley's side have only won seven of their 27 league matches so far this season while conceding 47 goals.
Asked what the mood is like at the Inchicore club at the moment, O'Brien said: "It has not been easy to be honest with you. Over the last, kind of, two seasons we would have seen probably our better players being cherry-picked by the likes of Cork and Dundalk.
"I was just saying to Stephen outside, the likes of Jamie McGrath and Sean Hoare that came through our scholarship program in Maynooth and we would have put a lot of time and effort in but it was just where they were in their careers and what Dundalk could offer them - they needed to go to make the next step and the fact that we had no European football this season because of where we finished last year has obviously affected us in attracting players.
St Patrick's Athletic manager Liam Buckley and Ger O'Brien. Image: ©INPHO/Gary Carr
"You take the Bray situation as well where they were able to offer better contracts to players where we probably would have gotten some of those guys this season.
"It has kind of compounded the fact we are blooding through a lot of young players because of the budget and stuff like that.
"Listen, we'll be judged at the end of the season where we finish but the mood is ok at the moment," he added.
The discussion turned to what can be done to better promote the League of Ireland and the full Saturday Panel can be heard here:
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