Donal Óg Cusack said the Offaly jubilee team being presented to the crowd long before the throw in of Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final was a "perfect example" of how "the GAA does not respect its players".
"Time and time again, they give examples of it," Cusack said on The Sunday Game, "like Joe (Canning) highlighted there around the Dillon Quirke example.
"That Offaly team, all the great memories. Remember all the great players, the likes of Brian Whelehan and everything they gave to the association.
"There's a certain amount of tokenism that has come into it. We used to joke around when we were young fellas that in time we'd be going out at half-time [in the hurling final] after 25 years and saying 'on that day Jackie Tyrrell...' We'd all joke about how we'd march onto the field. They are after taking the good out of that."
23 July 2023; The Offaly 1998 All-Ireland winning Jubilee team as the team are honoured before the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship final match between Kilkenny and Limerick at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Shane Dowling also questioned the timing of when the 1998 All-Ireland winners were honoured.
"Even the jubilee team beforehand, coming out at the time they did... why not just bring them out at half-time?" said the former Limerick hurler.
"What a team they are. It's half empty. People still haven't come into the stadium. At half-time, there were kids playing. I still think you could do both. You could still have a primary game and honour them lads and all the teams."
Cusack added that in the build-up to the final, "there was no atmosphere".
"We're all GAA people. We're all going to be in our clubs," said the former Cork goalkeeper.
"The vast majority of inter-county players are very good for their clubs. We get that, the importance of clubs, but there's a symbiotic relationship between the inter-county game and the club game. We're diluting the whole All-Ireland final event.
"This morning I went into the shop and I looked at all the newspapers, there was only one that had on its headline the All-Ireland final.
"I was looking at the RTÉ Sport website over the weekend, just for my own information. Most of the stories weren't about hurling at all.
"We need to be really, really careful in terms of how much we're diluting the game. Talk to hurling people around the country over the last week or so, we all know that there hasn't been a good build up to this final.
"At the start of last week, it was all about the football and very soon after tomorrow morning, it's going to be back to the Gaelic football again. Best of luck to them.
"We need to be really careful. It's almost seems as if we're crying out for someone like Guinness to come back and market this game. Hurling is way better to the GAA than the GAA is to hurling."
In Pictures: JP, Family And Friends - Limerick's Hurling Final Celebrations
