The Winnipeg Football Club announces today that Tim Burke will not return as Head Coach in 2014.

 

“We thank Tim for his passion, hard work and professionalism throughout the past year and a half he has been in this role, and for his tireless efforts over the past three seasons with the Winnipeg Football Club,” says President and CEO Wade Miller. “If an opportunity does arise for him to join our staff as a defensive coordinator, our organization would definitely be open to exploring this with Tim.”

 

“I’ve really enjoyed my time in Winnipeg and am grateful for the opportunity this franchise gave me. The fan support in this city and province is just really remarkable and it is one of the greatest things I can take away from this experience in Winnipeg,” said Burke.

 

Burke joined the Blue Bomber coaching staff prior to the 2011 season in the role of Defensive Coordinator, before taking over on an interim basis in August of 2011 and officially being named Head Coach on November 1, 2012.

I would take every other team's roster that made the playoffs, for the simple reason that they made the playoffs.  

 

That is all.

It has been noted SEVERAL times that we were a "cap team", as was everyone else in the league...

It was noted in one of the papers that the Bombers had plenty of cap room left.  I believe BUrke said that.  IN fact, I think they were pretty well at the league minimum.

 

$300,000 can get you quite an upgrade in players for your team.  An extra $100,000 can provide you with good to average Qbing (Glenn and Reilly) vs. below-average to terrible QBing (hall and Goltz), an extra $100,000 can provide you with huge upgrades on your O-line (Best and Labatte) vs. terrible to below-average lineman (Morley and Boatman), an extra $100,000 can provide you with an elite receiver or two (Fantuz or Dressler) vs. average and inconsistent receivers (Denmark and Etienne). 

 

If the Bombers had wisely spent their remaining cap space under Joe Mack on positions of need, the team woul have been a playoff contender.  As it was, he decided to be stubborn and spend the lowest possible amounts on key positions like Qb and the O-line.  The results of this decision-making speaks for itself.

The blue have to be the lowest paid team. We have not made any big free agent signings in years and the team is full of young raw players.

I wonder if Mack was forced to keep a minimal payroll by the higher ups??

again, stated many times, we were at the cap...it just wasn't being spent WELL...

again, stated many times, we were at the cap...it just wasn't being spent WELL...

But who is making this big money.

They said Pierce was working on a minimal base salary with all performance bonuses.

Who is making this cash?

Keep only a half-dozen players?

 

Holy undervaluation of a CFL roster Batman

 

i dunno man... i look at who the 24 nominal starters would be and only see a handful that i would "just have to" keep.

 

think about it.

 

Keep only a half-dozen players?

 

Holy undervaluation of a CFL roster Batman

 

i dunno man... i look at who the 24 nominal starters would be and only see a handful that i would "just have to" keep.

 

think about it.

 

Turner, Anderson, Wild, Muamba, Sears, Washington, January, Watson?

 

Keep only a half-dozen players?

 

Holy undervaluation of a CFL roster Batman

 

i dunno man... i look at who the 24 nominal starters would be and only see a handful that i would "just have to" keep.

 

think about it.

 

 

You're talking 24 starters, which is still debatable,

...but iso_55 refers to the whole roster. And you're not going to turn over 40 players in one year.

 

 

Keep only a half-dozen players?

 

Holy undervaluation of a CFL roster Batman

 

i dunno man... i look at who the 24 nominal starters would be and only see a handful that i would "just have to" keep.

 

think about it.

 

 

You're talking 24 starters, which is still debatable,

...but iso_55 refers to the whole roster. And you're not going to turn over 40 players in one year.

 

 

i think that Al is saying that the majority of them are expendable because of their level of play and potential to improve. and i don't disagree.

 

and i think that rebus rankin kinda got the point.

Chamblin didn't exactly have a stunning resume prior to being hired by the Riders.

You're talking 24 starters, which is still debatable,

...but iso_55 refers to the whole roster. And you're not going to turn over 40 players in one year.

 

i think that Al is saying that the majority of them are expendable because of their level of play and potential to improve. and i don't disagree.

 

and i think that rebus rankin kinda got the point.

 

 

You can spin it anyway you want about how many, in any given roster, are expendable.

Just look at the win-loss record and performance evaluations on any team and you will have a good idea.

But there is no team that can get by with "only their best" players, so it's foolish to say there are only 6 on any team that should be kept…including this one.

 

We can't keep fired coaches like Creehan & Burke on.... That would be a cancer. They have to go. I don't blame Dave Dickenson for not coming here. You know he's talked to his brother & knows just how effed up this organization is right now. This team has very little credibility out there in the football world. Things need to change fast.

 

wow. seems like the endof the world for you. chill man.

 

End of the world? Wow, talk about overstatement. I want to see this team win but at the end of the day if it doesn't it won't affect me that much. I'm a fan like all of us here & I have my own life to live. I have passion for the team going back many years but end of the world? No.  

Doug Berry and Tim Burke as our coordinators would be pretty good.

I get the complaints about Miller but one I don't understand is why people think a statement like "football decisions will be made with my approval" (or whatever he said) is out of line.

He's the CEO. They rubber stamp all decisions.

This isn't new. Some of you just don't like it because he's brash and blunt about it.

Perhaps people are a little bit confused as to the process of how these decisions are being made. The GM is typically the one to be the face of the decisions when facing the media. The CEO certainly has final approval or course, but usually gives his "yes" or "no" and then lets the GM handle the announcements and the questions, and the press conferences, etc.

All people have seen today is Miller. When do we hear from Walters?

Walters hasn't been named the permanent GM so that is why we haven't seen him.

I don't think that has anything to do with it, honestly.

Okay.... and...

And we've seen Walters conduct his business, answers questions and give interviews up until now. He's an acting GM but the duties are still the same as they would be anyways.

His absence is just a little perplexing. I don't think it has anything to do with him not being named to the permanent position, and more to do with the kind of presence that Miller wants to make with these types of personnel moves to the media. Something I think contradicts his proposals of who is doing what.

And we've seen Walters conduct his business, answers questions and give interviews up until now. He's an acting GM but the duties are still the same as they would be anyways.

His absence is just a little perplexing. I don't think it has anything to do with him not being named to the permanent position, and more to do with the kind of presence that Miller wants to make with these types of personnel moves to the media. Something I think contradicts his proposals of who is doing what.

 

Why is it perplexing? There could be a number of reasons why he wasn't there. Maybe he's out on a CIS scouting trip or something. Seems to me this is another instance where people are reading too much into something. 

 

And we've seen Walters conduct his business, answers questions and give interviews up until now. He's an acting GM but the duties are still the same as they would be anyways.

His absence is just a little perplexing. I don't think it has anything to do with him not being named to the permanent position, and more to do with the kind of presence that Miller wants to make with these types of personnel moves to the media. Something I think contradicts his proposals of who is doing what.

 

Why is it perplexing? There could be a number of reasons why he wasn't there. Maybe he's out on a CIS scouting trip or something. Seems to me this is another instance where people are reading too much into something. 

 

Love the spin on this one with your CIS comment, Jacquie. Greg Sellinger could use your help...  Seems more than a few people are thinking the same thing TrueBlue is. BTW, I support Burke's firing.

I agree.  The GM (which is Walters) should be front and centre on the Burke firing, not the CEO.  As time progresses we will see if the "positive" announcements are Miller's and the "negative" announcements are Walters.

 

Keep only a half-dozen players?

 

Holy undervaluation of a CFL roster Batman

 

i dunno man... i look at who the 24 nominal starters would be and only see a handful that i would "just have to" keep.

 

think about it.

 

This whole line of discussion is absolutely ridiculous. Outside of a teams top players the bulk of the imports in the CFL are largely all interchangable pieces and the difference between every single team is comes down to 2 factors, coaching and quarterbacking. You get those two things and a team can go from **** to champions, isn't that right buddy? 

 

Keep only a half-dozen players?

 

Holy undervaluation of a CFL roster Batman

 

i dunno man... i look at who the 24 nominal starters would be and only see a handful that i would "just have to" keep.

 

think about it.

 

 

 

The team was 3-15 this year.  That people really believe they were just a competent QB and better Coach way from being a contender is a remnant of the IMWT era.   

^^^ all about talent vs. performance

 

I'll stand by the fact that with a proper QB, we have TALENT on offence already to complement that QB. Without a QB, their performance will suffer.

I would agree that a Wally Buono or Huffer would've extracted more talent out of this group. 

 

That said, a Wally or Huffer would never have hitched the wagon to Bucky and then Goltz -- whether that was Mack or Burke or a mutual thing, it killed this team. 

I agree.  The GM (which is Walters) should be front and centre on the Burke firing, not the CEO.  As time progresses we will see if the "positive" announcements are Miller's and the "negative" announcements are Walters.

It's all speculation, but perhaps Walters has already been deemed by Miller to "not be the guy" to sit in the GM chair, so for now he's making the announcements.

 

Also, everyone keeps saying that Miller shouldn't be hiring anyone without the GM...except that he hasn't hired anyone yet.  It's just us speculating and rumor mongering.  Nothing has even happened yet to our knowledge so as of this moment, Miller is still telling the truth.  That the new GM will hire the Coach.  Doesn't mean he won't start figuring out who's out there that might be interested so that when they do hire the GM he can say "here are the candidates interested...go get em.  If you want to try the ones that said no again, be my guest."  OR, perhaps the new GM will also be HC and take on the dual role.

 

As of this moment we just don't know.

So here is a question, a stupid question, but still a question.

 

Does Walters actually want to be the GM?  Acting GM and all that is one thing, but does he actually want the full time job?  Perhaps Walters is wanting an experienced GM here that he can work with and learn more from.  Gain those contacts, gain the experience.  

 

Answers to these questions can only be assumptions at this point.... unless Walters himself gives an answer either way.

Miller has stated many times that Walters would be considered for the GM role so I would presume that means he wants it.

^^^ all about talent vs. performance

 

I'll stand by the fact that with a proper QB, we have TALENT on offence already to complement that QB. Without a QB, their performance will suffer.

We need more talent on the O-Line too though.