Rich

Curious what your thoughts of what would have been a fair draft? I also have a problem with making an expansion team stronger then the teams they are plucking from. I thought the expansion draft was quite fair. Sure Ottawa sucked this year but they got some good pieces to build with and now get to add with another draft drafting first overall

This is a Bomber message board, and it seems to me most of this thread has been valid discussion and questions from some of the Bombers ticket base. A lot of questions I had were shared by many people here. Seems to me that whining about people whining is a little hypocritical .... pot meet kettle.

I know if I had to carry the whole OLine, my back would hurt.

I think Walters is well aware of this based on his comments on H&L yesterday. He basically said a successful long term strategy is to draft 2 OLineman each draft. One early that can compete with the team this year and one later that can develop and come back the following year. Unfortunately you can't magically fix an O-Line over night.

Bringing back Section S is fine. Making any sort of announcement about juvenile bahaviour changes the story to that specific thing and endorses said behaviour. A wiser course of action would have been to simply say they want Section S to be as fun and engaged as it used to be and will not be looking to enforce rules abour harmless behaviour if its just people having a good time. The problem now is, the "beer snake" is now a "thing" and will dominate a lot of coverage at the beginning of next season. If anyone gets hurt or causes a fight as a result, Wade will have to then rescind the policy change. Its just silly. I find it kind of embarrassing. Oh yeah good idea...announce that they are not going to enforce rules for harmless behaviour...great idea....not Missed the point. The point is that saying something that general leaves people wondering "so what is the harmless behaviour that they are not going to enforce?" Theyd find out pretty quick, no? ok you think so? and that is a good way for them to find out? Here is the press release...The Winnipeg Blue Bombers Football Club is pleased to announce that we will NOT be enforcing rules for harmless behavior....if you want to know what those are....wait and see!. Yes in your mind I guess that is the way for them to find out. Not too hard to see you have never made up any rules and figured out a way to enforce them or not. Use your head, use some common sense, use a little logic and maybe stop smoking whatever it is you're smoking. Obviously I didnt mean they should word it that way. There's a way to say hey we want our fans to have fun at our games and we arent going to be nazi's about it. Quite frankly, I wouldnt say anything. I'd handle it internally and move on. Then when some yahoos start a beer snake, they will notice security doesnt puff out their chests. Seems to me you are the one without logic. You didn't like the way they handled the snake announcement, then you say they should announce that they are not going to enforce rules for harmless behavior, I try to show you that you can't say things that way because it means nothing, then you say you don't get the point, but you don't offer your own version of a proper press release, then you say you wouldn't say anything which totally defeats what they are trying to accomplish with the announcement, and now you get downright nasty. Have a nice day! Someone had the cornflakes pissed in I see. If you cant grasp the point, there is no reason to dumb it down for you. You must have quite the high IQ score because I can't really grasp the point either. You suggested the Bombers make an alternate announcement then the one that they did. But you haven't really said what that announcement should be to illustrate how it would have made more sense and been done in a better way.

Final regular season week of the season. Last chance to accumulate wins in the 4 games this week before the final 5 playoff games. 3 correct picks separate the top 4 contestants, so this one is going to come down to the wire. Calgary and Edmonton have first and second place wrapped up in the East, and they play BC and Saskatchewan respectfully. BC and SK are currently tied in the standings. Do they play to win and get the 3rd place playoff game in the West, or do they play to lose and hope for the crossover to be the 3rd place team in the East? Montreal is the only team in the East to have a playoff spot locked up. The 2nd playoff spot will go to either Toronto or Hamilton. Toronto plays Ottawa and Hamilton plays Montreal. Toronto needs to both win their game against Ottawa and have Montreal beat Hamilton to make it into the playoffs. Looks to be an exciting final week to the 2014 season, even if the Bombers aren’t in it. Lots to think about when you make your picks here: http://morningbigblue.com/community/index.php?app=pickems&do=games&pid=5&wid=67

Does 1290 have an archive? If so where? Should be able to get it here http://www.tsn.ca/radio/winnipeg-1290/walters-bombers-have-to-balance-slow-build-with-winning-now-1.126376

For sure he deserved some of the flak he took in the past, but the team as a whole didn't play well defensively. They take some of the blame as well. Having confidence that your defenders will take away rebounds and be in the right positions is huge for a goalie. Right now, it looks like the whole team has bought in, and it is showing dividends. In his last 5 games, Pavs has a .955 save percentage, 1.15 GAA, and 1 shutout. Certainly those numbers are not sustainable over the long term, and will be a big challenge against Pittsburgh. In only one of those games did he let in more then 1 goal. The team needs to start scoring more goals, so that as Pavelec's numbers come back down to reality, we continue to win games. Hopefully he remains steady back there.

Asking about O'Shea and Goossen seem like pretty reasonable questions to me. Even asking Walters to grade himself. I was curious on his answer for that one. We had a 7 - 11 season and missed the playoffs. I would have been very surprised if O'Shea was fired, but that doesn't make it a dumb question. It just validates the assumption. And why not ask the GM to assess the first first round draft pick he has drafted.

Bringing back Section S is fine. Making any sort of announcement about juvenile bahaviour changes the story to that specific thing and endorses said behaviour. A wiser course of action would have been to simply say they want Section S to be as fun and engaged as it used to be and will not be looking to enforce rules abour harmless behaviour if its just people having a good time. The problem now is, the "beer snake" is now a "thing" and will dominate a lot of coverage at the beginning of next season. If anyone gets hurt or causes a fight as a result, Wade will have to then rescind the policy change. Its just silly. I find it kind of embarrassing. Oh yeah good idea...announce that they are not going to enforce rules for harmless behaviour...great idea....not Missed the point. The point is that saying something that general leaves people wondering "so what is the harmless behaviour that they are not going to enforce?" Theyd find out pretty quick, no? You really think a vague communication is better than being specific? Wouldn’t this just cause more confusion and questions from people now wondering what will be allowed and not be allowed? People are supposed to try and guess what now is allowed and what isn't, risking being punished if they guess wrong? The team got a lot of negative publicity when they banned the beer snake. It was made into a big deal by the media and the people who enjoyed doing it. They made a point of saying that the decision is now reversed. Given the media attention it got at the time, yes it is worthwhile to mention in a press conference. I could really care less if they bring the beer snake back or not. But there are some people who enjoy that sort of thing, even if they are “juvenile”. If that gets more butts in the seats, and increases beer sales without hurting anyone else, then have at it.

So you really believe Miller is not committed to putting a better team on the field? It would appear not quite as much as bringing in the beer snake since that was his first public item of business. Don't you agree if they don't take this rebuilding seriously it will take a lot more than beer snakes to sell tickets? I don't care about beer snakes, I just don't want to keep hearing it will take another two years when we have heard that for years. Hamilton got it done in one year even after suspending Chris Williams and Edmonton who were with us last year could end up 13-5. I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. Yes, I think winning is job #1 and I think they understand that. They also realize that creating a fun environment and listening to what their fan base wants is another avenue towards success. It really does take both. You can argue whether or not bringing the beer snake back is creating a "fun environment". But I think it represents more the gesture then whether or not it will actually sell more tickets. It is trying to say we value you us customers to our product and we will try to give you and entertain you in the way you want to be entertained (as long as they can do it safely), rather then a take it or leave it proposition. They are trying to put the "fun" back into going to the game. Trying to make it an event, an atmosphere. You can see the beginnings of that this year with the party tent outside the stadium before the game. The DJ "traffic busters" after the game. Getting fans to raise the flag before each game. Getting people to stand and cheer on all kick-offs. It is all part of a bigger picture to create a culture and atmosphere that people enjoy and want to be a part of. (Even though a lot of it is copied from Seattle) Some of it will work, some of it won't. But at least they are trying different things. Of course they want to win and build a winner. But nothing is guaranteed. Sure they believe the right people are in place to do the job or they wouldn't be there. But we really don't know if they CAN do the job for another year or two (whether you want to hear that or not). Nothing, especially in professional sports, is certain. So yes, they are trying to build a winner. But that doesn't mean they can't try and build a fun atmosphere outside of that. It is only smart business to hedge your bets like that. And in a perfect world, when the team starts winning, and all of these things they are trying combine together, IGF will be an amazing, fun rocking place to be. And when the younger fans go and experience that first hand .... that is how you build long term support of the club.

To increase beer sales of course. What could go wrong?

This is a message board. When has that ever stopped anyone?

So, hypothetically, if there's a rash "down there", might that be related? Asking for a friend. I think Mike takes care of those types of problems....

I've upgraded the site to the latest version of the forum software tonight. This is typically a larger update then the incremental security patches that regularly get applied. Everything seems to be working, but these updates can sometimes break some of the 3rd party hooks and add ons that are on the site. Let me know if you see any issues or problems. From the release notes of the patch, there is really only one item of note that some of you may notice: Internet Explorer 11 Copy/Paste Issue has been fixed ​There have also been some fixes for people who login through their Facebook account, but I don't think we have many people who do that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_CFL_Draft It really depends on what the conditions were on what the Brohm and Portis trades were. Can't see Portis being a 2nd round pick given playing time. It was reported that the Brohm trade was at least a 4th rounder. Don't know what the high end was, or what the conditions were. We do get an extra 4th rounder from the Alex Hall deal from SK.

Based on what Ottawa was asking to move out of the first spot last year, I find it unlikely we would find common ground on a trade with them. Curious to see the scouting reports for next year's draft and how big of a drop there will be between first and third.

At the very least, Bucknor is the type of guy where even if his spot is upgraded and isn’t a starter next year, he has proven he is capable of stepping in. His presence on the roster allows for an injury replacement in game from a Canadian if a DB goes down. He isn’t a must sign, but it is guys like this that build the depth for a championship team. And this team really needs to keep all the NI depth it can. Special Teams wise, he only has 1 tackle on record. Have to admit though, I never really watched for him on special teams to assess his play.

Mike Kelly's 7 win season seemed worse then this last one for many reasons, some of which you state. But to me, the biggest reason is the team had had much more success in prior years and our expectation of the team was much higher. Prior to that season, our records was 8 -10, 10 - 7, 9 - 9, and had made the playoffs all 3 of those years. (Going to the Grey Cup in 2007). So 7 wins seemed bad in comparison to our expectations of previous years, where as this year, well everyone knows what our record has been the last couple of years. Mike Kelly's reign really marked the beginning of the current slide that we've been on for the last 6 years (2011 being an abnormally when we made it back to the Grey Cup and our only winning season since 2007) So just as the Mike Kelly 7 - 11 record marked the beginning of the trend of a bunch of bad years, hopefully this year's 7 -11 record marks the beginning of a trend of better and good years.

I believe it is a combination of scheme and players. Yes, we could get better play from our front 4. But a lot of Etch's schemes involve putting a large number of players on the LOS for confusion. Sometimes it is an all out blitz, sometimes they drop back in coverage. When we are blitzing, we need to get more pressure on the QB consistently. This wasn't always the case in the later half of the year. When we are dropping back into coverage, this is when we are more susceptible to the run, because if the RB makes it past the initial line of attack, we don't have linebackers in a more "classic" formation to cover the running back (because they were on the LOS and are retreating to get back into position), so the running gains tend to be bigger. Personally, I prefer a much more in your face, smash mouth, simple defense. We do what we do and we do it well. Something you can deliver like BC when you have players like Elimimian and Bighill to bring the hurt. I do realize those players don't come along every day, but I prefer that style to the disguise and confuse of Etch.

Curious on your reasoning for not wanting Brohm back. Wouldn't it make sense to have your QBs play a similar style in terms of developing plays / game plans / and prep for how you are going to attack an opponent? So that when the backup has to come in, they can essentially execute the same game plan that was planned for? Or do you look at having the different style as a change of pace QB. A 1a/b type situation where you can throw a guy in for a different look and have a few designed plays for him to execute. And this isn't meant as a shot against Marve or anything like that. I really like what I've seen from the guy and do want to see more. Just curious about your reasoning for dumping Brohm.

There is still a large difference between what organizations do internally and say externally to the media. Words are cheap, and in this day and age organizations keep things closer to their vest. I'd be willing to bet that O'Shea, Walters, and Miller aren't at all happy with the way this season has turned out, and are already planning on how to start addressing these things going forward. There are multiple reasons not to to divulge these things in the media, some of them including tipping your hate to the 8 other teams in the league as well as leaving your options open as your plan changes and evolves as you evaluate going forward. Actions will always speak louder then words. And we really won't know what the leaders of this organization think or where they see problems until training camp next year when we see who they kept, who they released, and where they brought in talent. Whatever is said now is really just lip service, whatever is said.

Happy to be of service.

What would be the point of them sticking around or even practicing?

Pick 'Ems need to be in by Friday @ 6:30 http://morningbigblue.com/community/index.php?app=pickems&do=games&pid=5&wid=66 Only a few weeks for regular season left before playoffs. Still quite a few bunched up top of the leaderboard who have a chance at winning!