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Bombers QB Buck Pierce practises in the cold at Canad Inns Stadium Thursday morning. Pierce, who will start Sunday, has played in five CFL playoff games.

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photos by JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Doug Brown is the most seasoned playoff veteran with eight games.

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�This is going to be a new experience for me� � veteran CFLer but playoff rookie Steve Morley

It's easy to anoint the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as prohibitive favourites as Sunday's Eastern final approaches.

The home-field advantage. The crowd. The weather. The team is well-rested and almost completely healthy after the bye week. Professional gamblers have them as four-point victors, which says a lot considering how Winnipeg hasn't been a Vegas darling this season.

They have owned Sunday's opponent, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, through three regular-season games so the expectation is, and rightly so given all of above, the Bombers will be jetting off to Vancouver next week.

A word of warning: This confident belief is predicated on playoff experience having little to no influence on the game.

"This is going to be a new experience for me," Bombers offensive lineman and CFL playoff rookie Steve Morley said after practice Thursday. "Everyone has been telling me that the speed is faster and the intensity is higher, so I'm looking forward to it."

Morley's story is bizarre. He's been playing pro football since the 2003 season, bouncing around both the CFL and NFL before landing in Winnipeg in 2009. Eight seasons -- no playoff bonus cheques.

"It's strange, I know, but it's finally here now," the 30-year old added. "It's all new territory for me."

He's not alone.

According to CFL head statistician Steve Daniel, of the 46 players projected to be on Winnipeg's active roster only 12 have a game of CFL playoff experience (not including Grey Cups). Doug Brown leads the way, appearing in eight playoff battles, while others like Jovon Johnson, Brendon LaBatte and Pierre-Luc Labbe have appeared in just one post-season contest.

Then there are the 34 individuals who have no professional playoff experience to speak of (for comparison, notice Hamilton had 11 players make their CFL post-season debuts last weekend). Guys like Jonathan Hefney, Chris Garrett, and Justin Palardy -- players who are valuable contributors to Winnipeg's effort -- have no CFL playoff experience.

Zero. Zilch. Nada.

The disparity between Winnipeg and Hamilton in terms of playoff time is staggering when you assign actual numbers to it.

Total number of man playoff games in the Bombers locker-room: 36.

Total number of man playoff games in the Tiger-Cats room: 96.

Keep in mind that number does not include the semifinal win in Montreal last Sunday, so add another 42 or so (depending on lineup changes) to that number and you'll get a true measure of the difference in CFL playoff acquaintance.

However, it's not like the relatively green Bombers haven't played in big games before. Hefney went to Tennessee, so he's used to the big-time college gridiron microscope. When he was at Boston College, linebacker Marcellus Bowman played against USC in the Emerald Bowl in 2009. Defensive lineman Don Oramasionwu won the 2007 Vanier Cup with the Manitoba Bisons.

Canadian receiver Cory Watson says the younger populace recognizes the difference between playing for your school and playing for an entire city and province.

"We all understand that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity," he said. "For me personally, I've never won a championship. Getting to the Grey Cup would be an incredible experience."

Winnipeg quarterback Buck Pierce, who has played in five CFL playoff games and won a Grey Cup (2006) with the B.C. Lions, recalls being that inexperienced player with no idea of what to expect from November football. As an older voice, he's tried to impart his education on the young Bombers this week.

"We were a veteran team (back in 2005), and I walked into a situation where we expected to be a contender every year," he said. "That moulded me as a player; 'Wow, this is how it should be, this is how professional football is.' It's important that we start to feel that way here.

"That's what I'm trying to talk to the guys about. Expect to be great. Expect to be in these situations. Enjoy it, but understand the opportunity that's in front of you."

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @wazoowazny

Post-seasoning

THANKS to the healthy serving of youth over the last two years, CFL playoff spice is at a premium in Winnipeg. Some points of interest to chew on before Sunday:

-- Seventy-one per cent of the expected 42-man roster for the East final will be playing in their first CFL playoff game. If you believe experience matters, pretend you didn't read that.

-- Excluding Grey Cups (because we're not there yet), Doug Brown leads the team with eight playoff games. Chris Cvetkovic is next with six, followed by Buck Pierce with five. Those players, plus Terrence Edwards, Glenn January, Ian Logan, Fernand Kashama and Jamie Boreham, have two or more playoff notches on their belts.

-- Only four players remain from the 2007 Grey Cup runner-up squad (Brown, Cvetkovic, Edwards and Fred Reid, who's out for the season with a knee injury). Logan and Obby Khan didn't participate in 2007. Boreham played for Saskatchewan; Jovon Johnson didn't dress for the Riders.

-- Pierce earned his Grey Cup ring with B.C. in 2006. He didn't throw a pass but he did come in for a handful of plays on offence. On the other side, Hamilton quarterback Kevin Glenn has 10 playoff games on his resumé.

-- Head man Paul LaPolice, offensive co-ordinator Jamie Barresi, defensive co-ordinator Tim Burke and linebackers coach Casey Creehan have varying degrees of November experience, while first-year assistant coach Marcus Howell counts 11 post-season games as a player.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 18, 2011 C3