Cochrane's example is one to follow

SO SAM COCHRANE has done the decent thing. He has told North sorry, but no thanks.

It's Guernsey FC only for him, for now anyway.

I would be very surprised if other key Northerners, men such as Angus Mackay, Glyn Dyer and Alex Le Prevost, have not had similar discussions, or plan to, with manager Ross Cameron. And I expect John Peace, the new St Martin's first-team coach, to start his reign at Blanche Pierre Lane very clear in the knowledge that all those black-and-white within GFC will be putting the island side first from now on.

What's more, I would be amazed if Ross Allen ever plays more than the very odd game for Rangers again. The same goes for Jacques Isabelle.

Piers Ockleford, Allen and Isabelle's Priaulx club teammate, has some serious thinking to do – go with GFC as you are good enough, would be my advice – and given their recent injuries, Bels' Dave Rihoy and Craig Young would be better served to stay away from the Track and concentrate on Combined Counties League football.

The same advice goes to those like Scott Bougourd, Matt Loaring and Ollie McKenzie at North.

Doubling up is doing nobody lasting good and the days of a clear divide is very nearly upon us now the Green Lions have managed to find a proper base to embark on their own weekly full training sessions.

It's not rocket science, it's simply good sports science and now the domestic game as a whole can move on quicker without its best 20 or so players.

With clear demarcations in place everyone will be better for it, including the Priaulx League within a couple of seasons, although I do expect one more development that the seven Priaulx clubs may not like: a Green Lions reserve or academy side.

It simply has to happen and the only burning question is to where and what level it will play its football.

Many years ago, perhaps a decade, I made the suggestion that the best way to develop youngsters is to take the cream of under-18s, lump them together under some sort of banner under a quality coach, I may have even suggested they be called Athletics FC, and enter them as an eighth Priaulx League side.

Tony Blondel, then president of Vale Rec, went bananas at the suggestion. Others simply said it could not and should not happen.

'They are our players thank you very much,' was the party line thinking.

But, of course, they are not.

Every young footballer, just like every cricketer, hockey player, sprinter, swimmer etc., is an individual.

Sport is not their job, they do not get paid for it, they are not contracted to do anything.

Unlike school or work, they do not have to go along.

I'd say again: take the best under-18s out of youth football, get them playing a full programme of senior league and cup matches and they will achieve better results for Guernsey at Junior Muratti level.

It stands to reason they will improve as footballers at a faster rate, the Priaulx League will be a better competition for it and Guernsey FC, the new flagship and trailblazer for island football – not the league representative side playing in the Inter-League Cup – will have the ideal backup side.

The only caveat I would suggest to all this is that Guernsey FC can offer the necessary guarantee to the GFA that they can not only fund the new side, but also match what is in place for the current Green Lions first team in terms of coaching and physio support.

I'd bet every top under-18 player in Guernsey would jump at the chance to be part of the Green Lions set-up in this way and every ambitious player in the age-groups below will see it as something to aim for.

The benefits, which would also include creating openings for another two dozen youngsters who might otherwise not get to play regular youth football, far outweigh the negatives.

Key to all this, of course, is that ALL clubs have to realise and get accustomed to the ethos that each individual should have the right to do what is best for them, not a club, if they see it as beneficial to improving their prospects of maximising their amateur career in their chosen sport.

It is not about loyalty. This is not the same as a player quitting a club for another mid-season simply because he doesn't fancy it anymore.

Individuals can still be loyal to a club, even if they no longer pull on their shirt.

A footballer is no different to, say, Lee Merrien, who no longer pulls on a GIAAC vest.

His association with and, daresay, love for GIAAC, is as strong as it ever was, only that it no longer suits him to compete for the club. He has bigger fish to fry in the world of distance running and his absence creates opportunity for others.

GIAAC know the picture and support him whole-heartedly.

Did Kristina Neves and Ian Powell turn out in the recent swimming inter-insular? No they didn't.

Each knows that Guernsey prospects would be much greater were they to get on the blocks against Jersey, but their sights are set much higher at national and international level. They cannot do everything. It's wholly understandable that they sat it out.

Does Tobyn Horton attempt to win any local cycling trophy? Of course not. He is aiming far higher and the Velo Club have no problem with that.

Although these are all individuals competing in individual sports, they are no different to any footballer who has the same one head, two legs and two arms.

They are all sportsmen and women who should have the common goal of wanting to get the most out of their careers.

Island football is in the early stages of a new, better, advancing landscape driven by people who know exactly what they are doing in a 21st century sporting environment.

They are not muppets these guys.

All of them are quality officials, administrators, coaches and medical men. They are one in seeing the only future which will take football forward.

So do those many hundred GFC fans who have marginal or no interest in the domestic club leagues, but see something which truly excites them.

Those people clinging onto the hope that one day hundreds are going to flock back to the touchlines to watch run-of-the-mill Priaulx League games, Jeremie Cup ties, the Malaya Cup etc. are living in cloud cuckoo land.

The football system created in 1890-odd is tired and needs a spark. Well, it has got it now whether it likes it or not.

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ST MARTIN'S, crisis Saints only a week or so ago, are on the way back. They might not know it, but they are.

One of the most pleasing things I have read this season, second only to the sight of Sylvans making such a fantastic fist of things across the league and gaining reward for some sterling work and foresight behind the scenes, was to hear that St Martin's had given first appearances to youth players Rob Woodhard, Ben Langlois and Joe Duquemin.

The highly-talented winger, Sam Hall, was work-tied otherwise he would have surely played too.

Saints got a 3-3 draw, they are still top of the Priaulx. There is life beyond GFC.

Good luck to John Peace and the boys who will get their chance quicker than they had expected.