NORTH first-team coach Mick Le Prevost has laid into the GFA for expanding its six-day rule to cover all island games. Le Prevost (pictured) has been an outspoken critic of the GFA and its proposed changes for the game and this issue was no different.
Four of Le Prevost’s players featured in this year’s Muratti. ‘You’re having a laugh,’ he said, when told of the proposed changes. ‘I won’t be happy with that. That would be terrible. How are we going to prepare for our games? I need my players. For Murattis and South-West Counties that’s understandable, but if it’s for a friendly . . . that’s pushing the bar too far.’
Just how much support Le Prevost will get in the club versus country debate is unclear. But St Martin’s coach and former island boss Colin Fallaize has a different view. ‘If it stimulates the guys to get better, then I don’t have a problem with it,’ he said.
‘You’ve got to value the job that people do for the island. Steve [Ogier] and Tony [Vance, assistant coach] put a lot of effort in and I can understand that they want the players’ time a bit more.’
Fallaize, a former Muratti star himself, said he has never had any club versus country issues and believes communication is the key to resolving problems between the two parties.
‘I played football to get into the island side and my vehicle for doing this was my club side,’ he said.
‘The way I feel about Guernsey football is that we should do everything we can to help Steve Ogier, but I think Steve will do everything he can to help us.’
At present the coaches of all the island teams can demand that selected players can only train with them six days before a Muratti match, meaning that they cannot train with or play for their clubs.
But under an amendment to the Guernsey Football Association rules and bye laws that will go before the clubs at the annual meeting on Thursday 19 June, the GFA wants to introduce this for Guernsey matches of all ages.
The GFA director in charge of representative football, Mark Le Tissier, explained the board’s thinking.
‘It’s to give the island coaches the best possible preparation for these games so that in the week before a game, the players won’t be training twice with the island and twice with their clubs. They then aren’t in the best shape.’
Senior Guernsey coach Ogier is fully behind the amendment.
‘Obviously it’s like everything else – we’re trying to improve the preparation for games,’ he said.
‘If we’ve got a game on a Saturday, there won’t be a first team game in the week leading up to it and the players will be free for the preceding five or six days.’
Ogier admitted there could be ‘club versus country’ issues similar to the ones that regularly pop up in the national media when an England manager wants a player for an international much to the chagrin of a Premiership boss.
But Ogier was quick to point out that under the proposals in the GFA’s five-year plan the number of Priaulx matches will be reduced from 24 a season to 18.
He said that in the week before an island match, there will possibly not be any Priaulx matches and the problem will be avoided.
‘The thing is they’re club players as well,’ he said.
‘I’ve got lot of views of what I’d like to see and the clubs have got views on what to do. It’s about finding a happy medium that suits the club managers and the island coaches.’
Article posted on 28th May, 2008 - 2.30pm
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