Club is young, raw, ready

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/06/2012 (4846 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was the morning after the blood-letting of the previous couple of days and the team that will be the 2012 edition of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — at least to start the regular season in Vancouver on Friday — finally came into focus Sunday morning.

And what emerged in the clarity of the first practice at Canad Inns Stadium since the club made sweeping cuts to get down to the 46-man regular season roster is a very young, very raw Bombers team with all kinds of new starters and very little time to gel.

The club will have just four 30-year-olds on the roster — and that includes long snapper Chris Cvetkovic — with the rest representing a crew of 20-somethings that are all long on enthusiasm, but some very short on experience.

And it will also be a club that will start the 2012 regular season with new starters at defensive tackle (Brandon Collier) and defensive end (Alex Hall), who won starting jobs in camp over Dorion Smith and Kenny Mainor respectively. Smith got released, while Mainor was relegated to second-team reps at practice on Sunday — the casualty of what defensive co-ordinator Tim Burke said was an unacceptable effort by the front four last week.

“To be quite honest with you,” Burke said Sunday, “I don’t think our D-line performed very well at all against Hamilton. And they’re going to have to step up their game.” Asked if he was satisfied with Collier as the replacement for retired longtime Bombers nose tackle Doug Brown, Burke was blunt. “No, not yet.”

And then there’s the strong-side linebacker situation, where the club seems to determined to start halfback Jonathan Hefney at least part of the time after releasing Clint Kent over the weekend. If that happens — Hefney made clear on Sunday that he hates the idea — it would create yet another new starting position on the Bombers defence at Hefney’s position, where Johnny Sears took first-team reps on Sunday.

Put it all together and add an injury to projected starting weak-side linebacker Marcellus Bowman (Dustin Doe is playing his spot) and the vaunted Bombers defence that dominated the CFL in 2011 will begin the regular season this Friday against the B.C. Lions with a very different look than the one that started the last time the Bombers played at BC Place, last November in the Grey Cup.

On offence, the Bombers will have new starters this season at wide receiver in Chris Matthews, who won the job to replace Greg Carr; centre Chris Kowalczuk, who beat out Justin Sorenson to replace Obby Khan; and guard Chris Greaves, who has the daunting task of replacing all-star Brendon LaBatte. And you can add to that injuries to start the season to SB Cory Watson and OT Andre Douglas, who are expected to be replaced in Vancouver by Rory Kohlert and Jordan Taormina respectively.

“Are we ready?” asked offensive tackle Glenn January. “I think we know what we have to accomplish. And knowing’s half the battle.”

Thought the Bombers were going to stand pat after a run to the Grey Cup in 2011? Hardly. “I think we’ve got a chance to be a pretty good team,” Bombers GM Joe Mack said Sunday. “We’ll find out on Friday.”

They certainly will be tested in Vancouver against a Lions team that beat them in last year’s Grey Cup and which already looks to be in elite form.

“They’re playing right now,” Burke said of the Lions, “like they were playing at the end of last year. They’re really geared up for the start of the season.

“I think you’re going to see the best they’ve got.”

And things won’t get markedly easier for the Bombers after the Lions, either. With four games on the road to start the regular season, the Bombers will travel to Montreal, Edmonton and Toronto in Weeks 2-4 respectively, before they finally get a home game July 26.

Put it together and this young team — they’re actually younger on average than last year, when they were already the youngest team in the league — and all their new starters are going to have precious little time to jell as a team.

“That’s just the nature of the beast and the CFL right now,” Mack said of all the changes. “Sure we wish we had more time, but we’ll just have to do the best we can with the time frame.

“I think we have a chance to have a real good season. I’m probably as anxious as the fans are to see how we perform. I think we have pieces in place to be really competitive.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca