After missing out in 2025 due to Jersey’s inability to field a side, coach Jenny Murphy will be calling upon no fewer than five senior debutantes as they aim to maintain their unbeaten run that has been going since the millennium.
Murphy admitted that last year’s cancellation had caught them off-guard and led to missed opportunities among their developing players.
‘We only found out six weeks, maybe, before,’ she said.
‘We’d been building towards it, so it was quite frustrating.’
But now teenagers Daisy Burrows and Florrie Cooper will be making their debuts, having come through the youth programme to impress at senior level for knockout champions Titans.
Fellow youngsters Molly Bougourd and Immi Collis have also earned their first caps at Guernsey senior level.
Another youngster and new face to the squad, multi-sporter Grace Ogier has reaped the rewards of focussing more on her basketball, bringing ‘that competitive edge’ according to the coach.
But the squad will still benefit from the experienced leadership of established Island Games players like captain Emma Hicks and vice-captain Emilie Batiste.
‘It’s really nice to see how our experienced seniors are using their experience and knowledge to bring up the juniors,’ Murphy added.
‘It’s a really nice team feel and team cohesion.’
Murphy said the focus will be on ‘bringing out the best we can’ amid the uncertainty of facing the Caesareans for the first time in two years.
‘It’s difficult – we don’t know what Jersey are bringing either.
‘They’ve had some issues with a lot of players retiring and bringing through youngsters.’
The Guernsey men do not even need to look back to last year’s edition for the last time they faced Jersey, for they had played them at the Ynys Mon 2025 Inter-Island Games summer tournament.
A six-point loss there had underlined Jersey’s improvement.
But coach Adam Farish, whose side emerged 78-59 winners in the last inter-insular proper, still has confidence his squad can maintain their stronghold at this level.
‘We’re going in reasonably confident around what we’ve got,’ he said.
‘We knew we were under-manned when we went to the tournament in the summer and that was a developmental team.’
Debutants Dan Aviso and Henry Pang have both pushed successfully for places in this weekend’s squad.
Aviso is still an U21 but had put down surprising performances in the build-up, while Pang has enjoyed an impressive season in the top flight.
The coach has also welcomed the return of still-young Blake Carre, who missed out on both last year’s home inter-insular and the summer tournament through long-term injury.
‘Blake is coming back after a frustrating couple of years with injury.
‘He is a real powerhouse.’
Aaron Walden will extend his long list of island captaincies and is among a strong cohort of experienced seniors in the squad, including the return of Nico Robinson, who had withdrawn belatedly from Ynys Mon through family commitments.
Guernsey teams
Men: Aaron Walden (c), Jason Hooper, Max Hamon, Dan Marriott, Kaine Hyde, Nico Robinson, Blake Carre , Henry Pang, Harry Gent, Dan Aviso, Ciaran Hamilton, James Alderton.
Women: Emma Hicks (c), Emilie Batiste (vc), Grace Ogier, Florrie Cooper, Daisy Burrows, Tia Barnett, Emma Sykes, Lauren Bray, Molly Bougourd, Immi Collis, Erin Ogier.
U21s: Harry Gent (c), Ben Hamon (vc), Harry Heaume, Evan Stuart, Theo Turton, Daniel Aviso, Josh Lawlor, Harry Collas, Seby Peters, Rio Ferbrache, Dyl Colley, Jayden Tracey.
