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Michael Bishop (CP)

The scene: a near-empty Winnipeg Blue Bombers locker-room dotted with a handful of players sifting through their belongings and tossing the chaff into garbage bags.

It's a scenario that will also unfold in six other Canadian Football League cities over the next few weeks, the lone exception the club that slurps bubbly from the Grey Cup amid a celebration that will include parades and parties that last well into December.

And it is a scene that has repeated over and over and over again in Winnipeg where the Bombers are 0 for their last 19 seasons since last winning a championship in 1990. Just to put that drought in perspective, the last time the Bombers were champs Brian Mulroney was this country's Prime Minister, Gary Filmon was Manitoba's premier, M.C. Hammer ruled the charts and Cheers was must-see TV.

The club is 0-4 in Grey Cup trips since 1990, playing two games without its starting quarterback (1993 minus Matt Dunigan; 2007 without Kevin Glenn). But this is also an organization that, while making a massive turnaround since 2000 financially, is also spinning its wheels on the field.

That's not opinion, it's there in black and white with the team having posted just one winning season in the last six years.

Here is a quick autopsy on 2009, examining key issues the Bombers franchise must address to end the second-longest Grey Cup drought in the team's 79 years...

1. THE MIKE KELLY/LYLE BAUER QUESTION -- Kelly, the first-year Bomber boss, insisted Monday in his final media scrum of 2009 that he will be back to honour the second year of his contract. Club president Lyle Bauer opted to not answer questions, stating it was a day for the players and coaches.

Look, the 7-11 won-lost record and playing to two of the lowest home crowds in a decade are damning developments for Kelly and the man who hired him, no question. And while both men speak of an improved 'culture' in the locker-room and for implementing important structural changes to the football operations department, those improvements are hard to measure and certainly didn't translate to the standings.

Pro football is a bottom line business and being one of two CFL teams that missed the playoffs -- and playing to two sub-22,0000 crowds in the fall -- represents an ugly bottom line. Ultimately, this is the call of the board of directors and it's certainly going to be debated behind closed doors. And soon.

2. WHO STARTS at QB? -- We brought this up after the Labour Day Classic loss to Saskatchewan and it's an issue that isn't any closer to being resolved: Where is the upside for the Bombers hitching their wagon to a 33-year-old nomad like Michael Bishop and his roller-coaster game? Here's the thing, though: We wouldn't cut the man -- he did go 6-8 as a starter and is extremely popular in the room -- because obviously the Bombers lacked a veteran presence at the position when the season opened after whacking Kevin Glenn in the off-season.

But who represents the future? Is it Ricky Santos, Casey Bramlet or Adam DiMichele? Or is it neg-list prospects like D.J. Shockley or Brian Johnson? This is THE most pressing personnel question the team must answer and until it finds/trades for/develops a top tier pivot, the Grey Cup drought will continue.

3. FIXING THAT SICKLY OFFENCE -- Kelly, hired because of his credentials when the Bombers set all kinds of records during his days as offensive co-ordinator from 1992-96, was the architect of an attack this year that was absolutely awful. As bad as last year's offence was -- and it was last in scoring -- this outfit made it look positively explosive. It had nine fewer TDs, 75 fewer first downs and managed just 200 yards passing per game. The offence was a predominantly a CFL laughingstock in '09.

4. THE CANADIAN CONTENT -- The Bombers best Canadian remains Doug Brown and, while he plays like he is ageless, his birth certificate reads: 35. There is, however, a solid core of homegrown starters, including Brendon LaBatte, Steve Morley, Obby Khan, Ian Logan and Brock Ralph, while receiver Jabari Arthur, acquired in the Romby Bryant/Arjei Franklin trade, apparently has future star written all over him. Winnipeg still holds its first-round draft pick next year (although the Roughriders could flip with the Bombers or take two future second-rounders as part of the Adarius Bowman trade) as well as its third and sixth-round picks, but gave up its second-rounder for Stefan LeFors, its fourth for Ralph and its fifth for Kelly Bates.

5. THE FREE AGENTS -- A testament to the work of John Murphy and Ross Hodgkinson -- the Bombers, at season's end, have just seven free agents heading into 2010: Jovon Johnson, Alexis Serna, Aaron Hargreaves, Ryan Donnelly, Pat MacDonald, James Johnson and Steven Holness. Of that crew getting Jovon Johnson, the club's Most Outstanding Player, and Serna re-signed are critical.

6. FINALLY: SOOTHING THE ANGRY MASSES -- The stadium deal is in limbo, the starting QB hardly has the populace racing to get his name and number on a souvenir jersey and the head coach has turned off a whole swack of fans and corporate sponsors. Trotting out a campaign slogan like, 'Hey, at least we're better than the Argos!' is hardly going to have folks busting through the turnstiles. The Bomber brand, sadly, has taken a pounding.

Memo to the big brains in Bomber management: roll up your sleeves, gents, and get to work ASAP.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 10, 2009 C3