TBURGESS

I'm disappointed at the TC reports this year too. Very few folks are doing them. I'd expect a daily report from posters like Mike, who I assume is there, but nada. In years past we'd have heard about Moore's great catch yesterday in real time from multiple posters. This year we have to wait to hear about it from O'Shea or read about it in the papers. It's almost like there's a cone of silence.

You say you like to work with facts and not conjecture yet you have already shown in the past that you will only believe what the coach says if it fits what you currently believe to be the truth. So even if he fully disclosed injuries, there is a good chance that you would choose to believe he is lying. As for timeframes, injuries aren't always an exact science. Players have setbacks while training or rehabbing. The truth is that there is a very small percentage of fans that follow these things as closely as the people on this site do, and satisfying their curiosity does not out weigh the cons of fully disclosing injuries. The way I see it is that there are two main reasons why they don't disclose injuries: 1) First, medical conditions are a personal matter and a player would have to agree to have their injury disclosed for a coach to get up in public and do so. This is a matter of a right to privacy between a player and a doctor. I've heard Maurice say this a number of times in his interviews for Jets players. That due to privacy of medical information, he does not have the right to disclose ailments of other people without their permission. Is he making that up to not answer the question? Possibly, I'm not a privacy lawyer, but that explanation certainly makes sense to me. 2) Injuries rarely fully heal during the season and they won't other teams targeting those injuries to take a player out during a game. This is just common sense and the reason why most teams in any sport don't fully disclose injury information. As for how O'Shea treats the media. I can understand why he has the disdain he does for the questions they ask, but I agree he needs to work on how he handles them better. 1) In this day and age, it's possible that explanation makes some sense. I kind of doubt that players are ever asked if it's ok to disclose their injuries. It's easy for Management to use it as an excuse though. I'd guess the real reason is that coaches are control freaks and they don't want any info to get out just in case someone can use it against the team. 2) This argument is often used and it's pretty shaky at best. At the playing speed in the pros it's almost impossible to target another players injury directly during the play. Also most players know that if they target another players injury, that they will get the same in return. These guys all take the same risks and they are more of a brotherhood than most fans think. 3) I don't expect timeframes to be an exact science. Knowing what the injury actually is would give anyone who can google a good idea of the actual timeframe needed to recover. 4) I don't trust what the coaches say because they tend to lie to the media a lot or give half answers or ignore the questions and rant on about what they want to. If they chose to be up front and honest about most things, then I'd believe most things they say, but quite honestly, they are spinning the best case scenario most, if not all the time. 5) The media asks some dumb and leading questions. No argument from me on that one. How the coaches handle it says a lot about they kind of person they are IMHO. Media is a big part of a HC's job description, especially when the other members of his staff aren't allowed to talk to the media. Doing it badly reflects badly on the team. Doing it really badly, like Kelly, earns you a quick trip to the unemployment line. Real leaders handle the media well and that doesn't mean treating them with disdain.

I know thats the way it's going to be. Doesn't mean I have to like it or agree with it.

Off the top of my head... Why do I care what ailment a player has... I like to work with facts, not conjecture. (Stops fan arguments. Some fans know that an injury is something serious, others know that it's really nothing others know that the player is just doggin it, still others know it's something that's embarrassing to a player like a kick in the nuts. The actual facts get rid of all these dumb arguments.) I like to know if this is part of a recurring problem or something new. (Example: Does Addison have another concussion, is it his knee or is it something else?) I don't trust the info coming from the Bombers regarding injury time frames. (A day becomes a day or two becomes several days becomes ????) I like to know if we have to replace a guy going forward or if it's just a day or two off. (Losing Bryant or Picard for any length of time would be a huge problem) I like my HC to treat everyone like an adult and know that they can handle the truth when the get it. (I hate the sneering, the lack of information, the barely suppressed 'You don't need to know anything' that O'Shea uses. Media's part of his job. Get better at it or the media will bite him as soon as they can.)

I want to know what's wrong with our injured players. I hate the way O'Shea handles the media. I consider it lying by omission, which forces fans to make up their own injuries. Most of the time they are worse than the truth. Flame away folks.

And too early to suggest he isn't.... I didn't say he isn't one dimensional. He may be or may not be one dimensional. It's way too early to suggest either is true. Happy now?

Marve's played less than a full game in the CFL total. It's way too early to suggest he's one dimensional.

It's sad when a football forum has more lines about non football related crap than actual football especially with TC is going on. How bout them Bombers!

Doug Flutie was a scrambling QB who didn't have arm strength anywhere near Marve's. He did pretty well. In fact, he's one of the best all time CFL QB's. Different QB's have different strengths and weaknesses. Scrambling QB's don't need to learn how to be a pocket passer to be effective any more than pocket passers need to learn to scramble to be effective. The OC simply needs to design a playbook that works best for the type of QB he has. Willy's a good pocket passer when he has lots of time. He's not great at avoiding the rush or making quick decisions and getting the ball off on time on target. We've upgraded the O line to give him more time to make his decisions and throws which should help immensely. Add in the new rules and it's a perfect storm for him to have a breakout season.

It's a big 'who cares' In the off season when the state of radio in Winnipeg, which old wrestler you liked, and lots of other non-football related subjects show up on this forum. Once the season starts and TC is part of the season, this kind of non-football crap should be taken out of the Bomber section and moved to the general section so folks who want to talk about it can and those of us who are here to talk football can simply mark General as read and move on.

This is supposed to be a football forum. Mods.... How bout moving this to general discussion? Thx.

Finally someone shows some love for Dan West, but don't fret, he's still on the team. (Wild?) Yes Wild! Yikes! I can't believe I even typed that.

Folks... Different people see different things. I for one would like to get all the opinions, from all the fans no matter if they match the general consensus or not. I see no advantage to kicking posters out who disagree with other posters and there's a big disadvantage when forums become nothing more than a bunch of same minded people parroting the same things. That's really boring and will eventually lead to the better posters finding somewhere else to discuss the Bombers.

Bryant and Picard are known upgrades and both are way better than the guys they replaced. Westerman should be an upgrade and he really helps with the ratio. Hall is night and day better at DC and some of the new coaches look like they should be upgrades too. I really like our 1st round draft picks of Chungh and Waggoner but I don't expect them to be difference makers this year. We lost our best defensive player in West. We need 3 new starting LB's. Our receiving core doesn't worry anyone yet. The right side of our O line is a work in progress. We have several players who have to prove they can stay healthy for more than half a season. We still have MB as OC. All in all I think we're moving in the right direction. I think we'll be more competitive and win more games than we did last year. Enough to move out of last place in the West? Only time will tell, but we have a good chance if Lulay or Durant can't stay healthy.

Thanks to everyone for posting your updates. Keep em coming.

Mims was chosen as one of this years starting tackles by a bunch of 'experts' on fan forums. Cut before TC even starts? LOL.

Until Periscope is on Windows or Linux... it doesn't exist. My phone's way too small for these old eyes.

I'd look forward to the competition. Note however, that you'd have to deal with a guy who plays to the echo of the whistle and who thinks like Ty Jones, so I will own you. Plus you are immune to nut-punching... Your continued fascination with my nuts is way creepy.

I'd look forward to the competition. Note however, that you'd have to deal with a guy who plays to the echo of the whistle and who thinks like Ty Jones, so I will own you.

Expectation... Make the playoffs and be competitive when we get there.

Hopefully it's a better pick than Kito Poblah was.

Trade Greaves? Huh? SMS? I'd expect an NI starter in return for Greaves so the salary difference wouldn't be that much. To start a rookie guard? We don't have any idea if Chungh is ready to start or not in the CFL. Because we have 5 NI's fighting for one spot? We are only going to have to cut one. As it stands, Neufeld or Goosen is penciled in as a starter or 6th O lineman. Chungh on the 46. Everett or Griffiths on the PR.

I went with sceptical. Love the Chungh pick. Don't like our 2nd and 3rd picks. Don't know enough about the rest to make an informed comment.

Love the Chungh pick. Better receivers were still available when we picked Richards (I'd have taken Durant). Bunch of better players than Morgan available. No idea what Walters was thinking in the second round.

Gotta say I prefer this format over the chat room too. I don't expect Walters to trade away our #2 overall, but stranger things have happened and he has to look at every deal that comes his way. I'm expecting an O lineman at #2 because Walters said something about Demski being a good choice for some team. In my mind that means he won't use the #2 pick on Demski and he doesn't expect Demski to still be around at #11. One of Waud, Demski, or Durant should drop to #11. I'd go with a receiver if 2 of the three make it that far.