Blue-urns

Listened to the coaches show and based on all of what he says to the press I have way way more confidence in O'Shea as a coach of this team than I did with Burke. Just seems like a guy who understands how a team needs to act. Can't wait to see what this team does with him as the leader. 

I was there today and agree with some observations not so much with others.
 
First...I don't know what it is, but in previous years I never ever got bored watching practice. This year not the case, I think it is because they are doing more teaching, which is probably a good thing! There just seems to be fairly long periods where not much is happening.
 
I hardly ever get to see what is going on with the OL. but Goossen and Morley are still alternating at centre. I'll tell you one thing, at the end of practice they had the OL doing sprints. Dan Knapp leaves all the rest in his dust. He is one fit dude! Someone who tried to keep up with him and almost did is Quinn Everett. Neufeld brought up the rear in last place and to me looked like he was limping at the end.
My general impression is that virtually all the OL are more fit than in previous years.
 
For me in previous practices, I wasn't so high on Brian Brohm...but he is really starting to grow on me and show me a pretty strong arm, good mobility, and accuracy. I am still impressed with Marve, Willy and Hall. Hall is smart and I still like him, but it is a struggle for him on long passes, certainly not the case with the others. In my opinion this is the strongest group of QB's we have had in a very long time, at least practice wise, we'll see in the pre season games.
 
For the running backs they all look good, again the strongest group for some time. Paris Cotton really stands out, Grigsby didn't show quite as much today, but I disagree with a previous poster about Tarver, the guy can catch and puts on some wicked moves. He is quick, quick, quick. I am also impressed with our new Canadian RB Errol Brooks. This is the second time I noticed him doing good things. Volny also looked good today.
 
Pontbriand was making nice catches, and Aaron Woods has great hands coming out of the backfield, and gets to his spot in a hurry. I hope they utilize him like that during the season.  Wasn't necessarily impressed with Feoli-Gudino in previous practices, but the guy can catch, not always with his hands though, but effort wise and toughness really shows. I wouldn't describe him as super fast, but fast enough. I thought Carter was just Ok today, but Taylor Renaud is having a very good camp. Kolhert is his usual steady self. Still not totally sold on Urrita though...I think he drops too many, and doesn't fight hard enough for the ball.
 
Didn't pay much attention to the defence...but tell you one thing, they are a hustling bunch, so there won't be a lack of effort.

I was there for a bit. Got kicked out of the sunny end zone too where I was trying to watch the O Line. There didn't seem to be much reason for it but let's move on.
I thought Grigsby looked good running the ball.
Kemp made some big catches in the parts I saw.
Mike Scheper is a complete maniac. In a good way I suppose.
Goossen was struggling when I was there.
After a winter of hemming and hawing I decided to renew my seasons. My old seats were taken so I am now sitting 4 rows below the Rum Hut. Which should be fun since I take my 10 year old to most games. I'm sure he won't here any words he hasn't heard watching the games with Daddy.

It means that the media doesn't know where he is. He's probably not on their injury report OR on the field, meaning it could be anything from a dentist appointment to he was kidnapped by Regina's Somali pirates

I liked Dutch a lot when he use to lead the panel back in the day. That being said if the only way to get Rod Black out of play by play would be shifting him into the role I would gladly do that. Always have thought Gord Miller does 10X the job of calling football than Black does.

What's Duthies story? If he's sticking with TSN without hockey to do would seem pretty natural for him to shift back to the CFL panel.

Friesen doesn't give a ****, I am telling you his article after the Bombers next Grey Cup win is going to be titled "All Down Hill From Here" Guy doesn't care about doing a good job he's just the worst sort of troll out there, an obvious and bad one. Good trolls have subtlety and intelligence, Friesen just tries to hit people over the head with his trolling. 

And re: Kelly's stance vs MOS, the difference is in how it was handled. Kelly was a prick about it and MOS was pretty honest and up front. Just stated how it is and why, and that's that. There's really no story here...

On the contrary, Terry, i think that Osh's quote in the article displays a keen awareness of how the press in Winnipeg works.

third person theater....
 
mbrg reads thread title..."aw jeez, really, cmon moab, you're not the type to spew out inflammatory crap like this"....
mbrg clicks on thread..."oh, its an article"...
mbrg reads first two paragraphs..."it's a really shitty stupid article"...
mbrg stops reading and scrolls down..."who wrote this piece of ****"....
mbrg sees the name of the laziest hack writer in town..."sigh"...
mbrg knows exactly what the next 3 pages in the thread will look like but glances at some of the posts anyways..."sigh"...
mbrg gets a phone call and now has plans for lunch..."yippee"...
 
You have Drew Edwards you lucky lucky man.  Count your blessings.

There is some truth, I am sure, to the idea Friesen just wants to stir the pot and when he gets people riled up, he is content.  There are load of media like that, especially in politics.  The the really good ones report in such a way to create discussion and debate, play devil's advocate etc.  Friesen just seems that he relishes some gimmick he has created for himself as Winnipeg media's bad boy but the reality is he just seems like a really lazy journalist who could probably file most of his stories without even getting out of bed.

But that really isn't it though is it?
If you want first class information and a good source for breaking news, you certainly don't go to Paul Friesen.
I can think of nobody who seeks out PF unless you have read/heard something like today, where he spews from the mouth into his typing hands.
 
And in such a long off-season, people are inclined to read anything football related, especially on the Bombers.
 
So, for Zontar to peddle that oft used line is silly when you know the reasons behind these comments.
 
* Yeah, credentials.
Don't forget, any slough can get press credentials, but it's another matter to be accredited with proper respect.

Well yeah I had respect for him.......i'd never want to write anything in the paper relating to Sports in Winnipeg.  It's not easy to write an article and make everyone like it.  But it's really easy to write down anything you want and just put it to print.  It takes a skilled writer to see both sides and be able to write a balanced article.  
 
I don't even care what Friesen wrote in this article but to come out and compare MO to MK after barely watching a practice is laughable.  The ONLY thing these two coaches have in common is their first name!  After that it's a sheer drop off.

I'm not sure this is a universal truth. I'm a media friendly guy. I hate the blind hate for Lawless and Westwood etc. Usually people have no reasonable discourse with media. But in this case
Friesen's job seems to be to be a negative prick.
There's a difference between working with media and bending over for media. O'shea has the right to set the rules.

Exactly. The team has become far more friendly and Friesen is still shitting on them for adopting a policy that is used by almost half the league.
I'd have a lot more respect for him if he said he didn't like the policy as opposed to acting as if it's an incredible mistake.

Funny that the only negative stories about Miller and O'Shea were both written by Friesen. The Bombers under Miller, Walters and O'Shea have bent over backwards for the media but that hasn't had any effect on how Friesen writes about the team.

Or, and I'm just spitballing here, Kelly failed because his actual football schemes were downright awful... and whether or not a coordinator could answer questions from such luminaries as Gary Lawless and Paul Friesen is actually irrelevant to the success of the football team?  
 
The only thing I actually liked about Kelly was that he realized Winnipeg's media was comprised mostly of buffoons.  He didn't exactly do it the right way, and that's where O'Shea seems to be different.
 
BTW: It's not inappropriate for the team to reduce media availability.  It's done almost everywhere there is a pro team.  They have mandated CFL media obligations to fulfill - that's it.

Paul Friesen is a schmuck.  I didn't realize this was a Friesen article at the start but once the ****-throwing really started I knew it was his schtick all over again.
 
Don't care what this idiot has to say.  He doesn't watch practice, he doesn't even comprehend the CFL (or really, any league) well and he certainly has no idea how to write articles.
 
What really ticks me off though is that people actually side with this buffoon and now we'll certainly be hearing about this crap all season.

Huff has the same rules in Calgary, Trestman had the same rules in Montreal. It's someone reaching trying to stir the pot. End of story.

Why is it that you ALWAYS side with the media? If a coach does something the media doesn't like, he's picking a fight? Why couldn't it just once be that the media is behaving inappropriately?

Day three, of the first year, of this guy's first stint as a Head Coach, and I've already heard more information, had more insight, and was entertained, all at the same time.
It is total night and day from the last two or three HCs and I, for one, am very pleased at what I'm hearing so far.
Mike O'Shea stated, when he first came here, that he wanted to create 'a culture of winning' and that he and Walters were going to hunker down and look at everybody in reference to the roster. So far, everything they've done is following what they've said.
 
Friesen is never going to 'get it' nor will he be able to penetrate O'Shea's resolve, so all he has left are these pissy little articles that will keep him exactly where he needs to be, when respect and admiration are meted out…being controlled, as to the message.

I stood behind Friesen for almost a half an hour at noon today and not once did I see him glance at the field more then 10 seconds.  All he did was as he puts it "Flap his gums" to all the other media guys there.  
 
So was this his first day at practice?  Did he bother to show up for rookie camp?  Because if he is comparing Kelly to O'shea after maybe 3 min of watching practice I have lost the last ounce of respect for that guy.

Effing Friesen is starting again.

no he bs'd them cuz bob wylie is an unprofessional ass. Ofcourse they knew. Geez man.
 
Bob Irving confirms the obviousness
 
O-line coach bob Wylie of bombers has unique deal--he can leave for a few days at a time to conduct coaching clinics--okayed by mike O'Shea
 
again Iriving quote off the twitter feed to the right...
 
Bomber o-line coach bob Wylie so highly regarded he's allowed to take days away to conduct previously arranged coaching clinics
 
 

Drew Willy looking much better today.
From the WRs that stood out today: Moore, Watson, Kelly, Denmark, and Urrutia looking good all with some nice catches.
Our D-line looks sick good. It'll be better than last year.
In terms of punting, Hajrullahu and Renaud look even in terms of distance. Both consistently around 60 yards. My early prediction is Renaud is our punter and Hajrullahu is our PK this season. Maher hasn't stood out enough to me to warrant using an import spot.
OT's are Jones, January, Neufeld, Peterson. The rest of the OL are practicing as centre or guard. Swiston injured but I believe he's a tackle.