Blue Bombers - 2025 Regular Season - Discussion Thread

[3rdand1.5]

TCB, flying Otter, and Bomber beer

LBJ 1919 and Golden Ale

HP Bulldog

LOTW Lakeside and Forgotten Lake (my wife's #1)

Torque Whitty Belgian

DMC Starstuff

 

All the above are great, can't go wrong with any of them on a hot humid Manitoba evening....add it a secluded campsite, a Bomber game on CJOB and a bonfire and it's the ultimate MB Evening

 

 

[HardCoreBlue]

18 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

Jake Thomas or Jameson Sheehan, who's presence on the roster makes you more angry?

And this is thing, it's not hating on these players as some put it, it's the frustration (at least from some of us) of thinking we could field better talent at these positions (with the greatest respect of course).

I'm sure these two are great human beings but c'mon loyalty is great until it's a detriment to the goal and mantra of the team.

[Noeller]

1 hour ago, GCn20 said:

I am in complete agreement. The fascination with killing beer with hops these days is ruining beer. Hops should be a background flavor not smacking you in the head with every sip. A beautiful, smooth, well rounded malted barley with a hint of hops should be the goal...but it isn't. Now it's can you taste the pine and grapefruit.....well yea actually...it's all i can taste....for days afterwards. I actually had to stop drinking IPAs because of my gout. Hops are terrible for gout and nowadays the overwhelming hoppiness of the IPAs just sets it off.

It depends on the beer.... Some beers are meant to be hop forward, some malt forward... Some are roasty... Some are grapefruit-y thanks to just the right amount of Citra hops. It all depends what you're looking for. I personally don't like west coast IPAs... It's like licking a 2x4.... But some do. Give me NEPA/NEIPA all day....

20 minutes ago, 3rdand1.5 said:

TCB, flying Otter, and Bomber beer

LBJ 1919 and Golden Ale

HP Bulldog

LOTW Lakeside and Forgotten Lake (my wife's #1)

Torque Whitty Belgian

DMC Starstuff

 

All the above are great, can't go wrong with any of them on a hot humid Manitoba evening....add it a secluded campsite, a Bomber game on CJOB and a bonfire and it's the ultimate MB Evening

 

 

HOOK IT TO MY VEINS!!

[voodoochylde]

17 hours ago, 17to85 said:

let's be totally honest, most of the new IPAs these days are just dump a **** ton of hops in and make it taste like juice. 

 

bring back more of the classic west coast IPAs I say. The hazy ones have their place, but too many beers these days are neglecting the malt aspect of a beer. 

This.  I'm so sick of "hazy / juicy" IPAs.

While not really pine forward, Low Life's Double Times IPA is phenomenal and surprisingly (dangerously) easy to drink at 7.8%.

[Booch]

39 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

And this is thing, it's not hating on these players as some put it, it's the frustration (at least from some of us) of thinking we could field better talent at these positions (with the greatest respect of course).

I'm sure these two are great human beings but c'mon loyalty is great until it's a detriment to the goal and mantra of the team.

Yeah...it's nothing personal....I'm about...and from the time where you put your best of the best out there and then worked the ratio to accomodate...not other way around...sure you can plan and have a template of where you want what where....but if you have a better option relative to the birth certificate...you make the switch.....and the biggest thing...you have to earn that spot...and then maintain it...

Kolo..Sheehan...Thomas..Schmeck...even Wilson and T.Jones now...we can...and key word here SHOULD be doing better...or continually bringing in guys until we have better...we actually last several yrs have had players in house....but refused to go that route....answer is....why??

[Fatty Liver]

Might be the last we ever hear of Zack Davis.

 

HIGH PRAISE: O’Shea on Winnipeg Rifles DT Zack Davis, who practised with the club last year and continues to grow every day: “His progression from when he first started with us til now has been phenomenal and just terrific. I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s having fun doing it, he understands it better. His pass-rush skills from last year to this year have gone through the roof and any time you have a bit of success it keeps you wanting more.

“I’m just really pleased for Zack. He’s an awesome teammate and a good guy to have around.”

[rebusrankin]

Here's hoping he continues to develop and ends up a future Bomber.

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, rebusrankin said:

Jake Thomas or Jameson Sheehan, who's presence on the roster makes you more angry?

Honestly, I'm more worried about Kola (as always) Kyrie, and bridges. It seems like Jake will be a rotational back up as he should with Lawson taking the primary nose reps. Jake might be fine if he's palying more 3t in limited snaps next to an imp nose like woods/adams. Shankylegs, I don't think punting is going to play into our success a lot early. I think the offence will look very good and the D even better. On teams I'm more worried about KR, and the cover team improving from pre season. 

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, HardCoreBlue said:

And this is thing, it's not hating on these players as some put it, it's the frustration (at least from some of us) of thinking we could field better talent at these positions (with the greatest respect of course).

I'm sure these two are great human beings but c'mon loyalty is great until it's a detriment to the goal and mantra of the team.

This. I love Jake's career here. When he was in rotations here, he was a great piece to have. The role change to go away from him as a backup, and go away from an Imp nose, is not his fault. If I were him, I wouldn't want to walk away from playing either. I hate that we ride guys' careers into the dirt and have them walking away broke and incapable rather than going out as a hero. 

36 minutes ago, Fatty Liver said:

Might be the last we ever hear of Zack Davis.

 

HIGH PRAISE: O’Shea on Winnipeg Rifles DT Zack Davis, who practised with the club last year and continues to grow every day: “His progression from when he first started with us til now has been phenomenal and just terrific. I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s having fun doing it, he understands it better. His pass-rush skills from last year to this year have gone through the roof and any time you have a bit of success it keeps you wanting more.

“I’m just really pleased for Zack. He’s an awesome teammate and a good guy to have around.”

 

6 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

Here's hoping he continues to develop and ends up a future Bomber.

I think he's debatably playable this year in the cfl. I think he'd be better in the same reps than Schmek for sure. With way more upside. If he progresses going into next year any anything close to what he did last year to this year, he will easily make the AR next year. 

[Fatty Liver]

35 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

This. I love Jake's career here. When he was in rotations here, he was a great piece to have. The role change to go away from him as a backup, and go away from an Imp nose, is not his fault. If I were him, I wouldn't want to walk away from playing either. I hate that we ride guys' careers into the dirt and have them walking away broke and incapable rather than going out as a hero. 

 

I think he's debatably playable this year in the cfl. I think he'd be better in the same reps than Schmek for sure. With way more upside. If he progresses going into next year any anything close to what he did last year to this year, he will easily make the AR next year. 

I don't know, sound to me like mostly lip service, O'Shea brings in local players, praises them highly then usually kicks them out the door after TC never to be heard from again.  Heck of a lot more young Sask. players developing throughout the league than there are coming out of Manitoba.  Kornelson is the only young Manitoba player on the team right now that might develop into a CFL player, the Bombers are putting money into local football, but the end results don't seem to be materializing.

[Super Duper Negatron]

Spotted today on a toilet at Kilter.

 

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, Fatty Liver said:

I don't know, sound to me like mostly lip service, O'Shea brings in local players, praises them highly then usually kicks them out the door after TC never to be heard from again.  Heck of a lot more young Sask. players developing throughout the league than there are coming out of Manitoba.  Kornelson is the only young Manitoba player on the team right now that might develop into a CFL player, the Bombers are putting money into local football, but the end results don't seem to be materializing.

It isn't, kid has tremendous upside. 

[Bigblue204]

1 hour ago, Fatty Liver said:

I don't know, sound to me like mostly lip service, O'Shea brings in local players, praises them highly then usually kicks them out the door after TC never to be heard from again.  Heck of a lot more young Sask. players developing throughout the league than there are coming out of Manitoba.  Kornelson is the only young Manitoba player on the team right now that might develop into a CFL player, the Bombers are putting money into local football, but the end results don't seem to be materializing.

give it 5 years

[JuranBoldenRules]

1 hour ago, Fatty Liver said:

I don't know, sound to me like mostly lip service, O'Shea brings in local players, praises them highly then usually kicks them out the door after TC never to be heard from again.  Heck of a lot more young Sask. players developing throughout the league than there are coming out of Manitoba.  Kornelson is the only young Manitoba player on the team right now that might develop into a CFL player, the Bombers are putting money into local football, but the end results don't seem to be materializing.

Bombers don't have an ability to just hide every Manitoba player.  Sask has way more participation.  Their high school leagues are better at ensuring more schools can compete.  Our Winnipeg league is built on what the top 4-6 programs want and they don't really care if that means 24 programs can exist in those conditions or if doing something a bit different means 36 schools could run programs.  Midget league was killed by WHSFL so better make sure everyone who wants to can play ball.

[rebusrankin]

1 minute ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Bombers don't have an ability to just hide every Manitoba player.  Sask has way more participation.  Their high school leagues are better at ensuring more schools can compete.  Our Winnipeg league is built on what the top 4-6 programs want and they don't really care if that means 24 programs can exist in those conditions or if doing something a bit different means 36 schools could run programs.  Midget league was killed by WHSFL so better make sure everyone who wants to can play ball.

So Dakota, Oak Park, St Paul's and Grant Park?

[Atomic]

Oak Park scored 346 points in 7 games in the 2024 regular season and had zero points scored against them 😭 

[Fatty Liver]

14 minutes ago, Atomic said:

Oak Park scored 346 points in 7 games in the 2024 regular season and had zero points scored against them 😭 

That's not good, what's the point?

[Bigblue204]

31 minutes ago, Fatty Liver said:

That's not good, what's the point?

You'd be surprised by the ego of youth football coaches/parents.

[JuranBoldenRules]

Delete

Edited 16 hours ago by JuranBoldenRules

[wbbfan]

11 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

You'd be surprised by the ego of youth football coaches/parents.

Same as any other sport in that age range up. 

[Arnold_Palmer]

1 hour ago, Atomic said:

Oak Park scored 346 points in 7 games in the 2024 regular season and had zero points scored against them 😭 

And I just checked, lost on the finals to the other league super team! Dakota!  

[rebusrankin]

6 minutes ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

And I just checked, lost on the finals to the other league super team! Dakota!  

If you're a good football player or a good athlete with potential and you live in LRSD, it seems you end up at Dakota. Whether they blatantly recruit, don't know.

[JuranBoldenRules]

22 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

If you're a good football player or a good athlete with potential and you live in LRSD, it seems you end up at Dakota. Whether they blatantly recruit, don't know.

Absolutely they do.  Everyone in the city with stable coaches does.  Rule is kids are locked in where they go to school for Grade 10 unless they move residence to a different catchment.  Otherwise if they change schools, have to sit out a year/go through an appeal process that rarely rules in favour of the athlete before they can play any sport at the new school.

Those top 3 Winnipeg schools in LRSD and PTSD (Dakota, OP, Vincent Massey) have more kids outside of catchment than inside on their football team.  By a lot.

Kids at schools without football can't transfer out after the start of their Grade 10 year either to play football at a new school.

Wade Miller is really pushing more of a co-op model to allow more schools to participate...which in MHSAA is only allowed for very small schools...and dilute the pool of players for Dakota, OP, Vincent Massey. 

WHSFL makes it's own rules through Winnipeg School Division so it is possible to do something different than MHSAA would say for other sports.  Manitoba is very weird in how our high school sports are structured and really discourage any hope of participating in a sport that doesn't exist at your school.....especially when basically all our team sports run the top programs through high schools, and outside of the city high schools are really the only way you can do anything but hockey.

All the rules slow down recruiting, but also encourage kids to go to the super schools for their sport rather than stay and build competitive programs in their area of the city.  Most other provinces have spring club leagues that take on that role and let kids play at closest available school to their home.

Edited 15 hours ago by JuranBoldenRules

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, Fatty Liver said:

That's not good, what's the point?

Domination.

[JuranBoldenRules]

1 hour ago, Atomic said:

Oak Park scored 346 points in 7 games in the 2024 regular season and had zero points scored against them 😭 

So many forfeits in AAAA league last year.  The tiering model is so broken.  Forced every AAAA school up into top league because everyone was trying to avoid being in same league with OP, St Paul's, Dakota.  Nobody wants to lose by 70.

It was a lot better when the big schools didn't have JV teams but a top division team and a lower division team instead.  In that era when I played and then coached, never heard of a forfeit.  Now it's like 6 a season because teams literally get destroyed playing these monster South Winnipeg programs.