This is no time to rebuild, just look at Calgary, Montreal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/11/2008 (6495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I have played eight seasons with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, been to the playoffs six times, competed in the Grey Cup twice unsuccessfully, and been on the side of 76 wins, 67 losses and one tie during the regular season.

During that time, I have seen three head coaches come and go, and if I am on the roster for 2009, will now see a fourth head coach appointed by the franchise.

This may seem like a lot of turnover for a ball club that has a respectable winning percentage of 53 per cent during the regular season for most of the last decade, but the bottom line in the factual accounting here I’m sure is "competed in the Grey Cup twice unsuccessfully."

Over the time I have spent with this organization, I have learned that the singular motivation behind every hiring, firing or trade of any player, GM or coach has been a return to the championship form that has eluded the Blue Bombers since 1990.

Therefore I cannot say I am entirely surprised by what occurred Wednesday, even though coach Doug Berry had performed reasonably well in his first term and appointment as a head coach with a 27-26-1 record and one trip to the championship game under his belt.

But with that being said, I had the same feeling this off-season — all five days of it so far — as I did sitting in the locker-room at 0-4 and 2-8 this year. The feeling that something, be it player, coach, or whatever, was going to happen and happen soon to turn the tide and swing the fortunes of the team in the direction it was expected to be heading.

For a player, the firing of your head coach in the off-season is a time of uncertainty and apprehension exceeding most other situations you can be exposed to and that’s part of the point being made by management.

For as much as a head coach is inherently responsible for the performance of his/her team on the field of play, a wise old coach Dave Ritchie once said, "Players play and coaches coach" and that is the bottom line.

Any failure on the part of a head coach to produce successful seasons under his watch is as much a reflection of the players he stuck with during his/her reign. So the firing of the chieftain of the football team is as much a failure of the players that existed during that tenure as it is anyone else’s.

As much as some will argue that the firing of a head coach is the first symptom of a rebuilding process, I couldn’t disagree more. All you have to do is look at the achievements of the Calgary Stampeders and the Montreal Alouettes, both with new head coaches in 2008, to realize that change can bring success almost immediately.

That principle didn’t hold true with Don Matthews in his latest appointment as head coach of the Toronto Argonauts this season — his mantra being that, "None of the players have any money with me in the bank of Don."

But change is still the ultimate motivation when it comes to getting the most out of a roster.

Whether the new hire comes from outside the ball club or is an internal promotion, when players are not overly comfortable or secure about their relationship with their boss you usually get the most out of them on the field of play.

So that is one side effect of this decision that fans can already look forward to next season no matter who is appointed to lead this football team in the future.

For every action of this magnitude there is a reaction and experience has told me time and again in this instance it is sure to be positive.