Rich

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No need to apologize about having an opinion. Thats what this place is for. Discussion and opinions. Everyone will not always agree, but it is good to get different points of view.

Were the organizations you were with under the gun to be the best in their field NOW or you'd all be fired in 6 months? If they were,probably no one would lack experience because you'd have to trust the rookie would do his/her job without long term effect to yours. Pro sports is a whole other animal from business. It's not what you did for me yesterday. It's what will you do for me today & more importantly tomorrow. It was a pilot contract where our early successes led to the client paying $40M+ to replace all of their computer systems. If we didn't succeed early on, we wouldn't have got the subsequent work. I have also had the opportunity to run and manage my own teams at work and I will take someone who has the drive and the smarts with no experience over someone who is average to mediocre with experience every day of the week and twice on Sunday. They got to test drive this guy out and they liked what they saw so they made a position to keep him. That is good management. Identifying talent and finding a way to keep it. If they wouldn't have hired him, there would be no one in this position, so there is really nothing lost here. and when you've fired as many coaches as the bombers have recently experienced rock solid coaches don't want to go through that ****. Let's face it the last decade this team has been dragged through all kinds of **** and it's going to take time to repair the reputation. and when you've fired as many coaches as the bombers have recently experienced rock solid coaches don't want to go through that ****. Let's face it the last decade this team has been dragged through all kinds of **** and it's going to take time to repair the reputation. I absolutely agree Look at the coaches & managers we've hired. Most first time head coaches & managers with no experience at their positions. BC went out & got Buono. Stamps brought in Hufnagel who worked under Buono in Calgary. Riders brought in (dare I say it) Brendan Taman. Argos hired Stamps GM & Vice President of Player Personnel Jim Barker. Hamilton hired Kent Austin who won a Grey Cup in Saskatchewan. If you want to ***** at something then use this to ***** about. Hiring Miller with no experience running a football club, Walters with no GM experience and O'Shea with no Head Coach experience. If the current incarnation of the Blue Bomber front office fails it will 100% be because of these guys not some nobody they hired as a quality control coach. Hiring someone with experience at that position, who isn't a decision maker, will have little to no impact. I don't remember anyone taking digs at you, only what you posted. There is a difference. Except for maybe one poster (who has a track record at taking digs at anyone who disagrees with him) but you managed to get a dig back, so it is all fair.

Except at the coordinator positions we have a plethora of experience. This isn't like bringing in Crowton to run the offense. And while I will admit I've never been on a professional coaching staff, the most successful teams that I've been on in my professional career are those that mix experience with youth and "inexperience". Those younger people often have the ability to question the status quo because they have never been there before. They bring a unique perspective to the team.

I'm not sure why you have such an issue with this. It is obvious this isn't a position they planned on having for the coaching staff to start the season. They liked what the new guy brought as a guest coach and made the budget work to hire him full time. The way I see it, that is the exact opposite that you are suggesting. They aren't cheaping out, they made room in the budget to bring in someone they liked.

If you are going to waste Scotch with mix you might as well just drink rye and save yourself a bunch of money. Scotch is a bit of an acquired taste. But drink the expensive stuff next to the cheap stuff and you will definitely notice the difference.

Has to happen when you have an odd number of teams. We drew the short stray this year.

Why OL Coach when he played D-Line?

He also said he was fine to play in Winnipeg. I think it is more about not being able to play where the concussion happened.

It was 3 - 5 depending where your seats were at. So some of the cheaper seats have already come up and have been renewed.

But for how long if they don't make the playoffs? That team is still in the honeymoon phase. It will always be sold out. There is an 8000 person waiting list for season tickets. The MTS Centre is sold out into eternity. The real test will be ~10 years after the Jets have come back, especially if the team continues to be in the bottom half of the NHL. This is the time frame when Minnesota stopped selling out when they got their franchise back. 8,000 people on a waiting list, paying a couple of hundred dollars a year is different then committing to pay full price for season tickets when their turn comes up.

Would you have preferred if they only brought in Renaud and Lirim and handed them the jobs without competition. Competition makes everyone better. What if Lirim crapped the bed, and we had no backup? Professional sports is a cut throat business. Maher has told when he signed he would be a long shot and had to out perform in all phases. He came up anyway. And now, he is getting a chance with Ottawa, so it is not all for not.

The one unknown with Messam is what he would expect to sign for. If he is looking for at or around 100k, then that is too much for a backup Canadian who doesn't play special teams. It isn't always as easy as saying that he would be an upgrade over Volny so sign him. The salary cap also has to be managed and factored in. The argument will of course be that if he doesn't get any other offers, he will sign cheap. Not necessarily true at his age and where he is in his career.

I'd be more upset if we cut Lirim and he got picked up by Ottawa. Internationals are good ... Nationals are gold.

Saw these tweets and found this to be an interesting development in terms of how teams would stash players on the IR. I'm a fan of this. Use the IR how it was intended, not to hide players.

The Alphabet Kicker?

The key to this year is going to be to show that the gong show has left town. Expect us to be competitive but lose more then we win. Team has to come together and show O'Shea is the real deal as head coach. This is key to be able to attract some Canadian free agent talent in the off season. Until we get this area of the team upgraded, our outlook is not great.

It was mentioned in another post that the Bombers will submit their cuts to the league by the deadline but they won't be announced publicly until tomorrow.

Saw these tweets from Wiebe today Any guesses on what he is going to sign for? I'm thinking 3 - 4 year @ an average of 3.5 - 4M.

I don't think any QB is cut. One of them will be stashed away on IR.

I think if they played this game in any other city where the preseason game wasn't forced on season ticket holders, you'd get similar results. What they should have done is either drastically reduced ticket prices and / or papered the house. The stadium has to be open, you are paying for your services staff to be there. Might as well fill it up and at least make money on concessions.

Winnipeg takes on Calgary in its 2nd preseason game. Join us in the chatroom @ 8PM for riveting play by play analysis by the board faithful!

Many people who check out this site at work don't have a choice.

I don't really think things are personal for Lawaless. After reading his articles and listening to him daily, when he starts turning on someone, like he did with Mack it is usually due to inside information from sources that he can't report on.

Lawless is fairly well connected in the NHL rumour mill. Usually if he is writing about it, there is at least some smoke to back up the fire. Not a guarantee by and means. But I don't think he just made this up.