SHORT of games. No money to bring sides over. What can the GFA do to back Tony Vance’s island side?

Could the answer come from both within and from the other side of the world?

Catching a snippet of Setanta’s breezy, cheesy ‘Footy Show’ which focuses on Australian Rugby League, I laughed as the presenter introduced the five most embarrassingly bad kicks at goal.

The winner came from a State of Origin game where the combatants, the best in Australia, represent the cream of New South Wales and Queensland, the two hotbeds of the ARL.

Now, I ask you, could Guernsey have its own State of Origin tournament to add a different dimension on the local game and, at the same time, give Vance’s Muratti hopefuls a shot in the arm?

Surely, it’s no worse than what we’ve got?

It need not run annually but, at times of financial crisis and with little prospect of a run of decent warm-up games, then it could be an entertaining little alternative. With some clever PR it could be of benefit to players and the footballing public who, not surprisingly, get tired of seeing Bels play North 10 times a year.

Dependent on your birthplace or primary school upbringing, players could represent Town, Westerners (Castel, St Saviour’s, St Peter’s and Torteval), Southerners (St Martin’s, St Andrew’s and Forest) and the Commoners (St Sampson’s and Vale).

But, before any of that, there is a Muratti and Island Games tournament to be won and, given the excellence of last Saturday’s Systems Cup destruction of the Kent County League, there must now be real hope of a long-awaited thrashing of Jersey.

Vance’s men were superb under the Corbet field lights: fantastic tempo, great goals, great shape, great awareness, work-rate and defensive solidarity.

Name the area of the game and we were great.

I don’t think anyone popping along to the Corbet Field could imagine such a scoreline and such a performance.

I have a warm, safe feeling that Tony Vance is going to be a lucky manager for Guernsey and, having lost the last two on penalties, it’s about time we had some luck at Muratti level.

Sure, we need Dave Rihoy to escape suspension and Ben Coulter to be wrapped up in cotton wool between now and 3 May (the boy’s developing brilliantly) but the key factor could be the re-emergence of our skipper.

Against Kent, Matt Warren was unrecognisable to the overweight, ponderous performer who played for St Martin’s at Sylvans early in the new year.

Then I considered him a spent force and a player living on past glories.

But the Kent game showed him to be returning close to his best and that gives Vance another card up his sleeve for the Jersey game. Well done Matt, it’s good to see the real you back.

BASKETBALL inter-insulars at Beau Sejour are, in their own way, a throwback to old Murattis.

Dramatic, crowd-pleasing and always a sense of fun to the fore. It might have been an inter-insular, but it was no war, even though Adam Farish’s occasionally outrageous commentary might have induced one had it been transported to a football game at the Track. He got away with it… just.

His not very subtle reminders that ‘Guernsey now have double Jersey’s score’ almost left him with a large dollop of egg on his face.