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This article was published 20/06/2011 (5536 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG Blue Bombers backup QBs Joey Elliott and Alex Brink both made some high-quality throws in practice on Sunday.

A perfectly-placed Elliott laser to Perry Floyd was the throw-and-catch of the day, while Brink had nice completions to Clarence Denmark and Bobby Guillory.

Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice was asked if he had a talk with Elliott after Thursday’s pre-season loss in Montreal, during which Elliott struggled at times to throw catchable passes.

“Of course,” said LaPolice, before adding a bit of sarcasm: “I just ignored him for three days.”

With that out of the way, LaPolice explained what he told Elliott. “We had conversations just how to do things better. Sometimes quarterbacks are going to miss throws to guys they haven’t played with a lot. We all have to have that understanding… We’re developing these guys. It’s a process, I think we’re good at it and we’ll continue to be.”

LAPOLICE said the emphasis in this Thursday’s pre-season game against the Toronto Argonauts at Canad Inns Stadium will begin to shift from evaluation to preparation.

Thursday’s game will be the last game-action for the Bombers before the club opens the CFL regular season July 1 in Hamilton against the Tiger-Cats and a lot of the veterans who sat out last Thursday’s game against the Montreal Alouettes — including starting QB Buck Pierce — will get action.

“I want to make sure we get players that get a chance to play together that maybe haven’t so much in camp,” said LaPolice. “Buck obviously needs to throw to a lot of the guys. We’ll have a rotation still to evaluate, but we also want to get starters playing together…

“Last week was all evaluation and competitiveness and this week is building and coming together.”

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LaPolice said the release of five players on Saturday — import WR Greg Betterson, import DL Dashawn Cassell, import DL Andre Carroll, import DB Andre Jones and non-import DB Giancarlo Rapanaro — was part of that process. “We don’t want to keep too many guys that aren’t going to get reps and aren’t going to be here.”

UNLIKE many football teams, the Bombers don’t do much in the way of wind sprints during practice to build conditioning.

LaPolice explained he prefers players do their conditioning in up-tempo scrimmages — and a hurry-up drill the club does — instead.

“We don’t really believe in running,” said LaPolice. “If you practice hard and fast enough, you don’t have to do that.”