ILLNESS can have its benefits and after Monday’s Muratti result, I have no doubt several hundred Guernsey supporters wished they, too, had gone down sick on the eve of the biggest football match of the season. I am reliably informed it was a good one to miss.

‘You would have slated them,’ said a good friend.

‘They were absolutely awful. No passion, no idea,’ he added.

Oh dear. Was it that bad?

I have to admit that Jersey winning for a third successive season came as no surprise.

After the Island Games heroics Guernsey have gone off the boil to an alarming degree.

It would not be fair to point the finger at Steve Ogier either.

Nine of the 14-man squad which appeared in the final against the Isle of Man last July were unavailable to Colin Fallaize’s successor on Monday.

In an island where the pool of real quality players diminishes by the season you cannot help but struggle without the likes of John Nobes, Paul Nobes, Jon Eley, Chris Chamb-erlain, Tony Vance, Neil Clegg, Danny Bisson and Matt Le Cras.

Throw in others such as the suspended Trim Morgan and the injured Kevin Gilligan and Matt Falla and you have virtually an entire XI unavailable to the current boss.

That is not to say that island football does not have big problems which require immediate action.

When Dave Dorey is elected GFA president this July he and new executive officer Matt Fallaize need to conduct an immediate and thorough appraisal of the local game.

I have no problem repeating myself on this issue: football is going backwards.

It is time everyone responsible for running the game – and I include the clubs – got together and took a long, hard, analytical look at domestic football.

It is ailing and at senior level is on the critical list.

Football people around the island will no doubt not be happy to read this, or perhaps vehemently disagree with my appraisal.

But, it is true and high time the sport stopped burying its head in the sand on the issue.

Back to Monday. What went so horribly wrong and to what extent should Ogier carry the can, if at all?

Despite all the injuries and list of absentees his final selection was a little mystifying.

If anyone had seen David Brodie dominate the Upton Park Cup midfield, he or she would have known Guernsey had to be strong and well-resourced in that area.

Playing Jan Renouf and Matt Warren alone in the middle was not the answer.

Steve Brehaut needed to anchor the midfield and although Joby Bourgaize’s pace caused a few problems down Jersey’s left, it was too big a gamble to play all three youngsters.

Other than that, nobody could seriously question Ogier’s selection.

In attack, there was no alternative to Ryan Tippett and Jon Veron, surely a sad indictment of our game.

Both are fine players, but no position should be unchallenged.

More than one person present at Springfield told me that Guernsey were as flat as Vazon beach. The green-and-whites lacked fire and simply were not up for the game.

If so, surely that is not the coach’s fault. Players have the responsibility for their own approach to any game, a Muratti final or whatever.

Looking ahead, for next season’s South-West Counties Championship campaign, I would like to see the coach take a few more risks in selection in the lead-up to the centenary Muratti and the Island Games defence.

It’s time to blood a few more youngsters and give opportunities to the odd decent player outside the fashionable big clubs, in so doing weakening the argument of those who claim the island squad to be ‘Club Guernsey’.

Ideally, I would take the team out of the SWCC altogether, but I cannot imagine that happening for one minute.