He’s got a foot in the door

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This article was published 18/08/2010 (5892 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It appears the pre-game injury to Louie Sakoda played a part in Justin Palardy landing with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Palardy, who started the season as a punter for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, was named the Bombers new place-kicker Tuesday, coming to terms after the team held a brief, three-day competition for the job this week. The former Saint Mary’s kicker beat out Warren Kean for the spot and will be in the lineup when the Bombers (2-5) take on the Montreal Alouettes (5-2) Thursday evening (6:30 p.m.).

The need for a kicker came after Sakoda — the player brought in to replace Alexis Serna — pulled a calf muscle in the waning moments of the warm-up prior to the 39-28 loss to the Tiger-Cats at Canad Inns Stadium Friday.

That left the Bombers scrambling. Punter Mike Renaud and linebacker Chris Smith tried to put their best foot forward but as expected, the in-game experiment didn’t help the Bombers’ chances, as the club sacrificed valuable field position throughout the evening.

Days later, the foundation for the Palardy decision was set.

“One of the things that really helped Justin’s cause is that he can also punt,” Bombers coach Paul LaPolice told reporters Tuesday. “It gives you a little bit of flexibility in that. I want to make sure we’re covered for any scenario that happens.”

Funny enough, the potential scenario the coach worries about involves Renaud, who is still booming footballs with a brace on the knee he hurt at the tail end of the 2009 season. The second-year punter, leading the CFL with a 47.2 yard average, has already missed one game this season because of soreness in that knee and the team doesn’t want to be caught short-handed again.

Bottom line for the Bombers: Palardy provides punting protection.

Right now, though, the Nova Scotia-native is on the roster as the kicker, at least for one game. Show well against the Alouettes this week, and the coaching staff may want to re-visit the kicking contest (Sakoda vs. Palardy) heading towards Labour Day. Palardy is Canadian (Sakoda is from California), so if he can prove to be an able kicker against Montreal, the Bombers may have the non-import leg they’ve been searching for since Troy Westwood.

“He (Palardy) understands that it’s a week-to-week thing,” LaPolice countered.

After a successful CIS career (65 of 84 of his field goal attempts in his four years at Saint Mary’s), Palardy has been on a roller-coaster the last six months, going from being drafted by Hamilton (fifth round, 36th overall) at the 2010 Canadian Draft, to making the Ticats, to being released by the team earlier this month.

“I had some good times in Hamilton and some not so good times,” he said. “Now I get a second chance and I’m going to go after it. Hopefully, it pans out well.”

The Bombers were impressed by his field goal range (somewhere around the 47-yard mark) and based their decision to go with the 22-year-old on FG ability and kick-off distance. A source close to the evaluation revealed that Palardy graded at 79 per cent, three points higher than Kean. The actual parameters for these percentages, however, were not known.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca