Tracker

Richie Hall is flat-out good people and a darned good coach as well. His previous experience as a head coach ought to help him understand the type of working relationship that has to exist between head and assistant coaches, and so make for a smooth coordination, Whatever comes up should be easily resolved. Welcome Mr. Hall.

Well, well, well. Hall may have a bone of contention with O'Shea before he even hits town. This bears watching.

Maybe someone forgot to cover their asterisk?

Uh huh. Don't travel much to the US do you? Fly from WPG to NYC and you're looking at basically a full day and over a thousand bucks, due to the connections in TO or MPLS or MON or CHI. Whereas you can fly from Calgary (much further west) to NYC direct most of the year in 6 hours and 400 bucks. Fly from LA to WPG takes at least half a day. At least one connection. LA to Calgary is 3 hours, nonstop, and way cheaper. Not saying WPG is a travel backwater but its certainly not an easy or affordable place to leave. Not true. I just took a flight to LA in June, connected in Denver. Left at 8 AM local, arrived at 12 PM local (6 hours total) Exactly -- connection. I just did LA - Calgary last week. 3 hours. And because no connection, my luggage arrived with me. WPG airport is as cute as a bugs ear but it aint an international hub (though neither really is Calgary). You really can't appreciate how lousy that is until you live in the Northeast USA, and can literally hop a last minute flight to London for $399 and get there in half a day. Calgary has designs on becoming a much bigger airport though. They're on their way. It always boggled my mind that Winnipeg given it's position right in the middle of the bloody continent couldn't find a way to make itself a hub. Calgary either has spent or is in the process of spending $600,000,000 on airport expansion. With the Alberta economy in dange of flatlining, that may not have been wise but it is The Alberta Way.

The proper term is "pedant" or "sheit-disturber".

Canada's economy is struggling at the moment, but it does not have the structural weaknesses that the US dollar does, so a 70 cent Canuck buck is not likely. The US economy has deteriorated to the point where almost 50 cents of each dollar spent is borrowed. That, plus military spending and dramatic deterioration of much infrastructure means very bad news for the US dollar.

Not everyone worries about that Yes, you're right, that's pretty much what I said. Try this: draw a circle with a radius of about a day's drive -- say 800km -- centered on Edmonton or Calgary or Regina. Then draw the same radius around Montreal. See how many more cities and people are in the Montreal radius?I've driven the country coast-to-coast and it's astonishing how wonderful the west is. FYP.

Benevides has announced his intent to take a year off and get to know his family.

Lawless has also said this PM that Benevides has withdrawn his name from consideration in the competition for the vacant DC job. This leaves only Hall and apparently he and the Bombers have agreed to terms and will be announced early next week. Hall was said to have the inside track from Day One.

Its a bad news/good news scenario. Lower energy prices mean household budgets are not as stressed and the Canadian dollar will find a resting spot around 0.90 USD, which will make exports more competitive. Bad News:The tar sands are largely owned by Chinese and they have no problem shuttering a bad investment until things improve. There are major black clouds on the horizon- the European enconomies actually shrank last quarter, Canadian real estate is about 30% overvalued ond overdue for a "correction", and the American Economy is teetering, due in no small part to the antagonistic political climate there and military adventures which have bled some 1.5 TRILLION dollars out of the economy. The biggest,most successful US investor, Warren Buffet (no relation to Jimmy) has pulled about 34 billion dollars out of the stock market in expectation of a crash.

In Alberta we have a deficit of $6-7 BILLION dollars.... Just this year. You guys have it good. And the Flames want a new arena? Good luck with that. This has been brewing for the past two years and its gonna get worse in Alberta. There are problems with a one-source economy, and the forecasts are for at least two more years of low oil and gas problems. Just wait until the tar sands start shutting down- they take years to get back up to full production.

Hmmmmm...if Benevides really wanted to go to Regina but got bad vibes or such, but Hall wanted to come here all along, I would rather have Hall. Don't like the idea of a coach whose first choice would have been elsewhere.

Blake may or may not make the team, but most athletes have their best years ages 26-29, and linemen often play well into their 30's.

Clearing out the deadwood.

Lets not delude ourselves. If Walters wants to bid up Heenan to force Taman to drain his cap space, thats one thing, but I rather doubt he would do such a thing. For starters ,the CFL is a small fraternity and Walters might need a favour from Taman at some point, so burning that bridge would make no sense. Heenan would need a pretty big raise to move here, and his wife/girlfriend would likely veto that anyways. If we have a legitimate shot at Holmes without breaking the bank, lets go for it. If that doesn't work, lets draft and develop.

Love the name. CRONK. CRONK!!! That he has to compete for his job in training camp. Which he would have had to do anyways. We can add his name to the list of phonetic Bombers: Crump, Bonk and Czap.

Picard has tweeted that he is happy and excited to be coming to Winnipeg. I hope he still has tread on his tires and makes the team.

Or one of the other six dwarves.

Don't bad-mouth Labbe. He might be waiting on the other side of a speed trap some day.

I told you all 6 pages ago that the matter was closed. Nobody listens anymore.....

Does Hall have a good reputation of making effective in-game adjustments? It would seem so. Etch came in with a well-deserved reputation and lived down to it, but I have not read on the Rider website about any troublesome traits for Hall.

What we need from Hall as defensive coordinator is a defence that adapts to the game as it goes along, defends against the inside run, and uses personnel to their strengths. It really doesn't matter if its Benevides or Hall, so long as we don't have a repeat of last season.

And we got a good deal of mileage out of Moe Elowonibi when others said he was washed up, so we have precedents.

Yeah, I remember we tried to re-sign him, some years ago, and he said adios. Good luck Dominic. He didn't show any loyalty to any team he played. The Bombers, Argos or Riders so it's easier to say adios to a player like that. Having said that, he went where the money was & who can blame him? No doubt if he was still a starter he'd go where the money is again. Can't really blame any CFL player for grabbing the bucks when he can. It wasn't as if Picard was a homeboy from Winnipeg who dissed the city and province and then bailed. It was about money and although Picard has had a long career in the CFL, most don't and have to live with a lot of creaks and groans for the rest of their lives.

Talking about Bluto and all, do you know what part of Popeye nevers squeaks? The part that he dips into Olive Oyl.