Ursula Jacob believes this week's controversy over the Ashbourne Cup has overshadowed the culmination of the competition and the handling of the issue has been "appalling".
TU Dublin were crowned Ashbourne Cup champions on Sunday with a victory after extra-time over UCC.
But the lead-up to this week's latter stages of camogie's third-level showpiece competition was marred by controversy.
UL thought they had done enough to qualify for this week's semi-finals on scoring difference by beating Maynooth by 34 points in their final group game, believing that a 33-point swing in their favour was what was needed based on the competition's official tables.
But they discovered this week that they had, in fact, been eliminated due to a scoring difference discrepancy from a result between DCU and Maynooth on 29 November.
The Allianz League Sunday panel discuss the controversy surrounding this weekend's camogie competition, the Ashbourne Cup. pic.twitter.com/Ap7D8cmuWu
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) February 12, 2023
Speaking on RTÉ's Allianz League Sunday, Wexford camogie great Jacob was critical of the handling of the matter.
"Firstly, the Ashbourne Cup competition is a fantastic tournament. It should be one of the highlights of the camogie season but this weekend has been completely overshadowed by this controversy," she said.
"I really feel for the players involved. It's just really appalling how it's all been dealt with.
"I'd have serious questions over how the whole process was handled (and) how we got to this stage because UL were preparing for an Ashbourne Cup semi-final three days ago and their details were included in the weekend's programme and then they have to go up to UCD and just watch UCC and DCU play out a semi-final.
"There's lots of questions. I'd really question the kind of communcation that happened over the last couple of weeks (and) the transparency.
"I'd question in relation to the referee's report. What was submitted? Was it submitted within the timeframe last November? And what was included in that report?
"Because if that was the score back in November, I don't see how it could be changed three months later. That's not good enough and it's not good enough for the players.
"I know from winning Ashbourne Cups, being involved at management level, you train and prepare for this competition. It's an unbelievable competition and it just has been thrown into complete chaos and it overshadowed the weekend and I'd like to congratulate TUD on their win. But no one is even taking notice of that.
"Fair play to UL for travelling up yesterday and showing great signs of solidarity. But they shouldn't have had to do that yesterday. It's just completely not good enough."
Also speaking on Allianz League Sunday, RTÉ GAA analyst Donal Óg Cusack said the controversy highlighted the urgency for the mooted amalgmation of the Camogie Association with the GAA and LGFA.
"It brings to question the bigger issue which is around the whole amalgamation of the Camogie, Ladies Football and the GAA," he said, adding that camogie and women's football players have been treated like "second class citizens" over the years.
"Surely it's the way to go for the associations. Sometimes I feel the GAA is over-administered. You'd wonder do the Camogie Association have the resources in place? That's why gaps like this (controversy) come.
"There's a lot of volunteers involved in this. Surely if you amalgamate it, there's lots of lessons to be learned, there's lots of leveraging of resources and so on, and it seems like such a logical idea that you'd wonder why is the (potential merger) taking so slowly.
"It was unanimous among the male population that their female colleagues would be brought into the Gaelic Players Association,
"I think they've set the example for the GAA to follow and I think there's way more to be gained by the overall association (with) everybody coming together rather than acting independently as we are now."
