Joby a future quiz question
IN YEARS to come it may well become a football quiz question.
IN YEARS to come it may well become a football quiz question.
Who was the first non-Guernsey FC regular to play in a Muratti final?
Of course, until such time as Kevin Graham announces his starting XI for the big game at Springfield on 7 May, we won't have the answer to the above.
And, it just might be that Graham's choice, or non-choice if you put it another way, could mean that we may have to wait another 12 months or more to discover the answer to the question.
Or, of course, it just might be that the question is a dud, and the answer will be that there never was a non-GFC regular to play in a Muratti after the formation of the Green Lions.
My call, though, is that there will be one in 2012 and it will be Belgrave Joby Bourgaize (pictured), the one non-Lion in the Muratti team.
Before someone says 'hold your horses Bourgaize is a GFC player, so the question does not apply', I will argue no, he isn't.
His name may appear in the Green Lions' match-day programme as part of the squad, but he is the only one who does not have a thumbnail picture alongside and his one and only appearance for the Lions was back in September when he played in central midfield against CB Hounslow away.
But Bels did not have a game that day and he has not had a sniff since, disqualifying himself simply by not showing any interest.
So, in my book, he is not a Green Lion.
But despite that and a poor showing in midfield in this week's Stranger Cup final, my hunch is that the new Muratti coach will give him the No. 2 shirt in front of Jacques Isabelle and Simon Geall, the men who have largely shared the shirt this momentous season.
And there is only one reason why Graham will make that decision.
It is because he believes that, despite the player handicapping himself by not raising his game in GFC colours and clearly not being in the peak condition Graham would like him to be, Joby is still the best man for the job.
That is ALL that matters.
I make a point of writing that because it has been said to me on several occasions in recent weeks, by a variety of sources, that Graham must choose someone who is 'not one of them'.
What utter nonsense.
The Senior Muratti coach may have been appointed by the GFA Board but, as mandates go, it does not include any need to satisfy those who would like to see our Muratti side comprise of players who, if push came to shove, would probably commit to GFC ahead of a one-off game against Jersey.
Graham is his own man and not daft.
If he picks Bourgaize it is because he believes his strength, aerial ability, speed up and down the flank and, crucially, his final delivery, puts him ahead of his rivals.
Graham would pick Simon Tostevin, Danny Marquand, Dave Cusack or Wayne Bishop, if he considered them to be more likely to shoot down Jersey than Ross Allen.
Graham is not blinkered, he's merely a realist with a stack of passion for the Muratti.
And if he's doing the job again next season, which I have no reason to suspect he won't, 'Big Kev' may well go the whole hog and put out 11 Lions at the Track come May.
That will be just fine with me.
*
IT'S been a strange old football season, but the virtual wholesale absence of the island's top players has made it an interesting and balanced one.
At first-team level North and Bels already have silverware to put in the cabinet and after today St Martin's or Sylvans will be able to make the same claim.
I've enjoyed it for its unpredictability and loved it for the opportunities it has created for others who were off the radar a year ago.
Sam Hall, one of the key figures in our victorious Junior Muratti side, has been given the chance to shine at St Martin's. He is not the finished model yet, but he is further down the line than had his pathway been blocked by a stack of GFC players who had filled the Saints ranks the previous year.
Likewise Danny Cooley at North. The next Sam Cochrane?
