When old schedules helped island bosses
IF THE rain doesn't get you, the seagulls will.
IF THE rain doesn't get you, the seagulls will.
That sums up our domestic football at present.
Nothing much is happening as the worst stretch of weather most of us can remember leaves footballers and fans starved of anything other than the most sporadic action.
Frustratingly, the situation does not look like improving quickly.
But we can always talk island football and the players Tony Vance should and should not pick.
The island manager this week rightly bemoaned the fact that he can never experiment, as every game is a must-win. He also defended his under-fire captain.
Meanwhile, the GFA, no doubt with Vance's encouragement, are desperate to provide the island side with a competitive game every six weeks.
My long-held view is that only playing week in, week out, will maximise the potential in Guernsey's most popular winter team sport, but the chance of that happening remain remote purely on financial grounds. Like with the weather, there is no quick fix.
Forty years ago the hindrance to picking a winning Muratti team lay with the process.
The coach was given an XI to work with picked by a panel of five.
And if you think that was stupid, at least it was an improvement on the seven selectors – one per club – which existed even further back.
Back in 1969 Guernsey were still enjoying the benefits of good UK sides happy to contest the Victory Cup over Easter.
They would play two Island XIs, one on a Saturday and the main game on the Monday.
You could win or lose your Muratti spot on the back of an Easter performance when fringe players were given a chance to shine or confirm they were not up to the job.
Forty years on, the 'Team Guernsey' operation is such that the fringe players have few chances to impress outside of club football when the inadequacies of your team-mates, or team as a whole, can have a profoundly negative effect on your island prospects.
There is, of course, the under-21s to act as some sort of developmental team, but the age constraints of that won't help the likes of Sam Stables and Jacques Isabelles, two players who have impressed this writer this campaign but seem nowhere near the island set-up.
I set the GP sports team and editorial colleague Simon Tostevin a task this week to each come up with developmental XIs.
Not an island B team, but an XI recognising current performance and untried potential.
For that reason you will not find listed a Jonny Veron, clearly still one of the best forward players around, but very much tried, tested and badly in need of an Easter Saturday game to show what he is capable of.
None of the four of us have chosen Marc McGrath either.
Although only 23-24, the island management team know all about his strengths and weaknesses and he does not appear to be close to lining up on Muratti day.
Without apportioning names to any of the four selections here is what came up with:
Team 1 (3-4-3): Richard Davey (Rovers); Sam Stables (Rangers), Tom Strawbridge (Saints), Naro Zimmerman (Saints); Marc Laws (Bels), Scott Bougourd (North), Jacques Isabelle (Rangers), Kieran Mahon (North); Craig Young (North), Danny Marquand (Athletics), Wayne Bishop (Sylvans).
Team 2 (4-4-2): Davey (Rovers); Mark Ramsden (Vale Rec), Brady Lesbirel (Sylvans), Strawbridge (Saints), Mahon (North); Matt Loaring (North), Bougourd (North), Isabelle (Rangers), J. Winch (Saints); Young (North), Nigel Hutton (North).
Team 3 (4-4-2): Davey (Rovers); Chris Mauger (Saints), Paul Page (North), Stables (Rangers), Paul Ramsden (Bels/Athletics); Laws (Bels), Isabelle (Rangers), Sam Langlois (Rovers), Mark Ramsden (Vale Rec); Marquand (Athletics), Luke Winch (Saints).
Team 4 (3-2-3-2): Davey (Rovers); Zimmerman (Saints), Isabelle (Rangers), Stables (Rangers); Mark Ramsden (Vale Rec), Jamie Dodd (Saints); Bougourd (North), Matt Drillot (Bels), Mahon (North); Bishop (Sylvans), Hutton (North).
Several names crop up time and again, most notably Davey, the league's most improved keeper, the versatile Saints defender Tom Strawbridge, the exciting young Northerners Scott Bougourd and Kieren Mahon, and the Rangers duo of Sam Stables and Jacques Isabelle.
Two of them are already part and parcel of Team Guernsey and the rest are surely inching ever closer.
How close they are to seeing meaningful island representative action only Vance can answer, but yesterday's confirmation of a string of warm-up games for the Muratti and System Cup, may give scope for the odd one or two to be looked at.
Let's hope so, because you never know until you try.
