Fracas fuels Bombers’ workout

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This article was published 07/08/2015 (4024 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mike O’Shea chalked it up to over-familiarity after too many days of his players hitting each other, instead of an opponent.

Sukh Chungh said it was some healthy venting.

Jamaal Westerman — tongue planted in cheek — said it was all just an innocent misunderstanding.

And Dominic Picard? Well, Picard’s always been a different kind of cat and “The Angry Frenchman” didn’t seem to much care what led to a couple of melees at Winnipeg Blue Bombers practice Friday — just so long as there are more of them to come.

“I love it — I just love it,” Picard beamed after practice. “It shows character. We’re hungry and it showed up right there.”

What had Picard so fired up at Investors Group Field on Friday was a pair of scraps midway through practice that saw the first-team offence and defence pushing and shoving one another and exchanging unpleasantries.

Chungh and slotback Julian Feoli-Gudino and Westerman and cornerback Johnny Adams were among the combatants.

O’Shea bit his tongue and didn’t intervene after the first scrap. But the Bombers head coach had had more than enough when a second scuffle broke out a couple minutes later. He gathered the offence and defence around him in a circle and lit into them for several minutes in a tirade that was both louder and saltier than anyone could recall O’Shea ever being at practice before.

O’Shea was unapologetic afterward when it was pointed out to him his profanity-laced outburst came well within earshot of a daycare that was attending practice and sitting in the first row at IGF.

“We have open practices. We welcome everybody to come visit us. But they’re in our place of work.”

So what was it about Friday’s shenanigans that lit such a spark in O’Shea, who has always been hands-off in the past when altercations broke out during practice?

“I did stand back — the first time,” O’Shea explained.

“The second time, they’re interrupting practice. You’ve got x number of people out there trying to get the job done and this is interupting what we’re trying to do.”

O’Shea said it was a good problem, in any event, to have his team up on edge in their final full practice before taking on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Sunday at Tim Hortons Field.

“You’d rather have to calm them down,” said O’Shea, “than fire them up.”

The most amusing reaction to the whole episode came from Westerman, who insisted reporters who witnessed the scraps were just misunderstanding what they’d seen.

“I don’t think there was any dust-up. Guys fell. I think guys tripped over each others shoelaces and stuff like that,” said Westerman, a wry smile on his face. “Maybe from afar it might have looked like something. But guys trip over each other’s shoelaces. I mean look at my shoelaces — they’re all over the place.

“Guys trip and then it’s like, ‘Hey, help me up, man.’ ‘OK, cool.’ It just looks bad from far.”

All of which is as hilarious as it is a complete misrepresentation of what occurred.

So what really did happen? Chungh, who was also in the middle of Friday’s fracas — just as he was a couple weeks ago in another mid-practice dust-up — said it was all just healthy competition.

“We’ve got tough competition coming up on Sunday and everyone’s out here competing trying to earn a job and keep a job. You’re going to have days like this where it gets a little physical after the whistle, but it’s fine…

“Everyone’s pumped up for this game on Sunday and you can see the emotion here.”

The Bombers will travel today to Hamilton, where they will face the Ticats on Sunday at Tim Hortons Field, where Hamilton is a perfect 7-0 since the stadium opened last season.

The Bombers will be without slotback Nick Moore, who also missed last week’s Winnipeg win over B.C.. Moore practised Wednesday but has been absent the last two days and O’Shea said he will be unavailable this week.

Other scratches due to injury this week are defensive end Thaddeus Gibson, who will be replaced by Darrell Johnson, and special-teamer Graig Newman, who will be replaced by Carlton Littlejohn, who the Bombers acquired earlier this week.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek