ONE hundred and 10 years of Jackson League history should be neatly wrapped up and banished to Guernsey sport’s equivalent of Room 101. And as it disappears out of sight, or permanently to the GFA trophy cabinet at the Corbet Field, we should not shed one tear.
Instead it’s time to celebrate the coming of a new age for local football, where, after the Priaulx championship, an under-21 league is closely second in line.
Well, that’s my wishful thinking done for this week.
Unsurprisingly, there has been the expected grumbling over the GFA plans to re-invigorate football.
No sooner has someone come forward with a bright new vision for the domestic game, one that has seen the Priaulx, Jackson and Railway in tired, outdated unison for the last 95 years, than the heads-in-the-sand camp retort with a firm no.
‘There is no need to change, everything is fine,’ was the summation of the Priaulx League’s championship-winning coach, Mick Le Prevost.
‘We just need to be fitter,’ he says.
So, Mick, you mean we can play at an even more furious pace and miscontrol the ball more often than we do now, do you?
There is an awful lot wrong with our domestic game and introducing new talent in a manner which the Guernsey Rugby Club have done, not hard cash for appearances, is one way. An under-21 league is another.
Mac Gallienne’s idea has a great deal of merit and should be implemented for next season.
There is no reason to prevaricate. Go for it and all those useful footballers who were about to give up serious action for a life of soft Business or Sunday League football can get a new lease of enthusiasm.
An under-21 league embracing 17 to 20-year-olds must be good for the very reason it will delay the decay of the career of many a player.
Packaged properly and with the right set of playing conditions, an under-21 league will be better than what we see now at under-18 and Jackson levels.
You have to ask yourself: are our best non-Priaulx playing under-18 players being properly tested?
Of course not.
Are the Jackson sides a true representation of each club’s first-reserve strength?
No they are not.
Many Jackson matches, tucked away on a Sunday afternoon, are crammed with third-team players covering for others who do not have the interest to play on a Sunday afternoon or decline because they have had their weekend dose of action in a Business or Sunday Soccer League side.
The Rangers boss argues that the under-21 league requires ‘first-class’ status and he could not be more right if it is to provide for the island’s best young emerging talent.
I would package the new league on Saturday afternoons and one recognised midweek evening, leaving the Railway to fight out for the Business and SSL source.
Why not brand the Priaulx as the C&W Premiership, the under-21s as the C&W Championship?
Article posted on 26th May, 2007 - 12.00am
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