GCn20

Does it even matter what is in the budget. It's over for the PCs in Manitoba in October. That ship has sailed. In four years they can focus on regaining a majority but this budget won't help them then. New leader, new candidates, new vision they can sell against Kinew's crew is the only path forward for them now. I, for one, welcome the change. I think political parties have a two term shelf life and should be shown the door. Very rarely does any government do anything very well in their 3rd consecutive term and beyond. Not sure why that is exactly, perhaps they just get tired out or get too brave and start implementing too far away from centre...not sure...but it is usually a **** show.

It really is bizarro world over there when it comes to politics. I am not sure if it has always been this bad, but social media has brought it to light but OMG they need to scrub every single party over there and make them rebuild without any of the current candidates and power brokers allowed access again. I can honestly see Trump becoming president again that's how F'ed up they are.

For sure. We are running it back with some older vets in key positions. They are still high level playmakers. That doesn't mean that Walters is disregarding father time though. I expect recruitment for OT, MLB etc is something our scouts are keying on this year so that when these guys eventually show their age we are ready. It is absolute nonsense to suggest that time is now though. Bighill, Big Stan, Yoshi etc are all very, very good players still that have not shown they need urgent replacement....but yes they will be among the first players in our core to be replaced when it is time and that is I am 100% sure where Walters will begin putting the onus on our excellent recruiting staff to prioritize.

I only regaled the shots that happened before the 7th end, by then the brandy would take hold and the last 3 ends were all a blur.

So because we have Bighill and Wilson back it is your belief that Walters will not look for LBers for depth and secession planning? I disagree and believe your logic is flawed on this. Last year Walters had Biggie and Wilson coming off all star level seasons, there was no urgency. This year is quite different and I expect to see more MLB/WIL Lbers in camp and on the PR this year. Who we are starting is irrelevant to that discussion. Biggie and Wilson when healthy are one of the best MACK/WIL duos in the CFL. They are aging and I expect recruitment for their future replacements has picked up steam. Just because no one emerged out of camp last year is 100% irrelevant to this year.

I believe the CFL is expecting a pretty big bump to the SMS when the US TV contract is finally officially signed. Even now, around the league, we are seeing some contracts that are head scratchers but would make sense if the GMs happen to know a little more than we do. I will not worry about Schoen until it is time to do so. I would never have imagined we could create the cap space to bring back Lawler this year...but somehow Walters made it happen.

Quite the difference you are referencing. Lirim has been to the brier, using your analogy, albeit only as a spare. He has played at the highest level and although he wasn't quite good enough to stick so far, he is in most GM's rolodex as a guy they can call in a pinch. From there you never know. He can come to the CFL and make 150k CAD or he can go to the XFL and make 81k CAD for half the games played, and keep kicking by NFL rules on an NFL field. Also, there is absolutely nothing stopping a kicker from playing both leagues if they want...it isn't like they will get worn out.

Last year is last year, this year is this year, Needs are different every year. One cannot extrapolate that we will not be bringing in LBers to compete because last year we were thin on them.

I agree. However, the XFL or USFL will take the sting out of that somewhat. Kickers are a relatively small community, and is maybe the one position where the same old names circulate year after year as teams don't tend to spend much scouting and developing them. If his availability is there, he is one of a handful of names that will get the call. If he is in the CFL that door closes. Even if he gets a PT gig through an injury he will be earning. Teams are calling him to go straight onto the game day roster. Be different if he were earning CFL QB money, but the pay gap between the Spring Leagues and the CFL for kickers is not that huge.

Having Kyrie back this year is going to make a massive difference to Biggie and the LBers in general. Wilson is freakishly fast and it really hurt our defensive scheme having him out last year.

If he is passionate about the team, he definitely has the money, and this will be great news for the CFL.

He has lost a step. I have never seen a player regain that step once it's lost. His numbers will decline yet again. He has stepped out of his brother's asshat shadow. He wants to prove that he can own a professional franchise without being a sideshow that will scare other owners, so that he can point to a strong ownership record to the NHL. That would be my guess. Plus, like it or not he is a businessman and owning a CFL team brings you a bunch of goodwill in the community.

Has to be cheap. No one else was picking up the phone to get him. Desperate cannot fully sum up the logic on a signing like this. Beyond desperate. The guy walked any route he wasn't the 1st or 2nd read in the play call. Wait until he gets in a dressing room with the rest of the me-first guys. Any kind of culture reset they were hoping for is gone up in smoke. I understand that they desperately needed a receiver, as their receivers are by far the weakest in the league, but sometimes you just gotta roll the dice on a rookie if everyone worth a snot says no to your offers. Honestly, I would went with Darvin Adams or Jorden before Walker.

Riders sign Derel Walker. How clueless can one GM be? You have a culture of me-first players you are trying to get rid of, and you sign one of the biggest me-first guys in the league. Makes no sense.

For sure. Comparing Godber, who is barely CFL starter capable and Grandpa Blake to Picard and Labatte is an absolutely insane reach. Godber and Blake are barely an improvement over Clark/(any of the 45 OTs that Riders used last year). Godber got dumped the second Couture became available....and Couture was kind of off his game the last year and a half. That ought to tell the gappers something. Blake, if he was going in at OG, would be a minor improvement but Dickie says he is going to OT where he had one of the worst records among OTs in the CFL last year. Same pylons....different names on the back of their jerseys. Harris is gonna be flatter than a big mac patty by the end of the first third of the season. I am not wishing an injury on him.....but logic is telling me he will not get past game 4-5.

It's a darn good think that DT and Aumell are probably looking at last year's stats to justify their positions on this, and an over reliance on stats is a fool's game. Heart, work ethic, scheme, and health are all big factors that don't show up in the stats. That's always been my one knock on DT is that he relies on stats to formulate his opinion on stuff, and that is only one part of the equation.

I agree. Our DT recruitment has been pretty darn good. Our last 2 NTs are now among the highest paid in the league on other teams. I am not sure why everyone has such a hate on for Casey Sayles? He's not Stove I guess? However, Hamilton made him a 200k guy in FA, so I think we may have seriously undervalued his contribution....or at least Hamilton's GM thought we did.

Vanstone, and all other Rider media, is given their talking points and the overall gist of their article and then just use their words to convey the message. It is why the fan base is so delusional. They have a never ending diet of media pablum served directly from the team. Vanstone was given a job with the Riders so that they could muzzle the one reporter who actually dared to ask some tough questions. Simple as that.

It would be different if just an hour before we hadn't seen a FG made from roughly the same distance out start out well left and get blown dead centre by Bede, and then a missed attempt just before the half that started dead centre and ended up well wide to the right. If Legghio starts this kick dead centre he misses it. PERIOD. Undeniable fact based on all the other FGs we witnessed that day.

It is extremely common for kickers to start a kick wide of the mark. Happens all the time in a cross wind. That being said it's quite possible he didn't hit it well. We have no way of knowing though.

If Evans is taking a Dom Davis based salary, I am honestly shocked that the Riders didn't go after him as well to 1b Harris. Seems like a whiffed opportunity by them yet again. Toronto was NEVER getting Evans for less than a 1st round pick imo. They dealt him West for peanuts, but there is no chance in the world that they were giving Toronto an experienced starter without extracting their pound of flesh. This has to be seen as an absolutely worst case scenario by them. No QBs left to dance with, and a virtually rookie QB as a starter that has a pretty poor reputation as a leader and team player.

Low numbers on ESPN but also 0 dollars in production costs for them. You are overstating how good your team is. Toronto with MBT would have been very slight favorites to win the East. There is one Ferrari in this league right now and it ain't Toronto, everyone else is 2nd tier in comparison. On any given Sunday these teams can win, but let's be perfectly clear if the CFL playoffs were a best out of 5 they might as well hand the cup to the Bombers right now.

There you go. That was an abomination. Talk about that and you will have made a point. I'm certainly not going to defend Leggs. After a terrific first half of the season he really started to get shaky. However, I think we would be stupid to not bring him back and let him compete for both jobs.

I honestly think that MBT was very upset that Kelly got all the post game accolades in the Grey Cup. MBT is sulking by taking his ball and going home.

Number of viewers wise sure, but not even remotely similar in market saturation numbers and those are what matters. Advertisers don't pay unless a certain % of the watching market is hit because it doesn't translate into sales increases worth their advertising dollar. ESPN won't carry them if aren't hitting a million views average. CFL hits around a million per game views in Canada a population about a tenth the size of the USA. That should tell you what their TV market is....abysmal. No advertiser is paying ESPN advertising rates for 900k views. If no one is buying time, networks tend to end TV deals very abruptly the first chance they get. Without a TV network, and with Argonaut level attendance league wide....DOOMED.