THE story of the week?

Well, working on the premise that a good story is one that is fresh and unique, then losing another Muratti final most certainly wasn’t it.

No, the mantle falls to the Green Trophy showdown in Jersey, table tennis’s own increasingly passionate version of the Muratti.

More precisely, the performance of Jersey’s top men’s player and development officer, Craig Gascoyne.

‘It was just outrageous, absolutely so,’ said one anonymous caller to the sports desk this week.

‘For a development officer to behave like that was bizarre,’ the spectator said.

What was also bizarre was how Jersey attempted to excuse it, Clive Hansford putting it down to heat-of-the-moment stuff.

But, I’m not surprised there was an incident worthy of making it on to You Tube and the Guernsey Table Tennis Association making a complaint, because the signs that it might happen have been there for a while.

Guernsey is not whiter than white on this issue.

Twelve months ago there was the sight of a Guernsey player receiving a red card in the Green, home spectators at Hougue du Pommier barracking the experienced home official who deserved much better.

Booze was talking that night.

And on both sides of the water, players young and old are all getting a little over-excited too often for my liking.

It could be a potential problem if not nipped in the bud, but on that score I’m sure the GTTA are on top of it and I judge that on how players like Guernsey and CI champion Garry Dodd and the exciting 15-year-old Olly Langlois, have responded to a rap across the knuckles.

This week Langlois was ‘fingered’ by Hansford for throwing his towel and bat to the floor in Jersey last weekend, but surely that does not compare with the actions of Gascoyne, who plainly should know better.

Even if there was provocation from a member of the Guernsey contingent, as a development officer he should be hammering home the importance to stay focused, controlled and behave within the laws and spirit of the game, Gascoyne was out of order and his employers should have the moral fibre to tell him and make it public knowledge.

SUNDAY’S Muratti loss was another sickener for local football.

No matter how anyone attempts to package an explanation for a fourth successive defeat and eighth in 10 years, we were plainly poor.

Players of considerable experience failed to perform and the island’s dire lack of creativity in the final third and goal power was again exposed.

And Jersey were supposedly without half a team.

The answer?

To my mind it matters not who coaches/manages the Guernsey team, the island senior side will not make the surely achievable and minimal target of four senior Muratti wins per decade, until the depth of talent is increased and with it the selection pool widened.

It is at an all-time low.

All our football, including the various development leagues, needs to be tougher.

Promotion and relegation within the GFA structure must happen at the earliest opportunity and somehow the best ‘social’ sides must immediately be enticed back into the GFA fold to make the divisional system work.

It’s time to lock the GFA board in a room with those running business and Sunday league football and not allow them out again until an agreement on how all sides can work together for the overall benefit of the game.