Ready. Set. Football’s coming
Training camps opens May 15, then exhibition games, 18-game schedule
The excitement, and ultimately staggering disappointment, of the first Grey Cup game played here in a quarter-century is still so fresh that it’s easy to overlook what’s right around the corner for the Hamilton Tiger-cats.
Two weeks from Wednesday, rookies will report to training camp, four days later the whole team arrives at Mcmaster and less than two weeks after that the Ticats will welcome the Montreal Alouettes for their first exhibition game in three years, on Saturday, May 28, at 1 p.m.
Yes, three years. There was no Canadian Football League season in 2020 and last year’s training camp and regular-season opening were postponed, pre-season games were eliminated, the Grey Cup was trimmed down and pushed back three weeks and teams played only 14 games, not the regular 18.
“I’m really excited to get back around the team in training camp,” says receiver Bralon Addison, a CFL all-star in 2019, but injured for all but three games last year.
“It’ll be great to have a normal training camp again and to have some exhibition games, so the new guys will be able to compete before they start the season,” the ace receiver added.
During the CFL’S annual season preview media conference with Ticats head coach Orlondo Steinauer and assistant general manager Drew Allemang on Monday afternoon, Steinauer confirmed Addison had recovered from a hamstring injury that effectively ended his season in October.
Addison has been back in town for two weeks, working out with quarterback Dane Evans and fellow receiver Tyler Ternowski, the Hamilton native. His return will fortify a receiving corps that has several young returnees but will be without new Toronto Argonaut Brandon Banks, and Jaelon Acklin, who moved over to the Ottawa Redblacks with new GM Shawn Burke.
“The expectation is for him to make the plays he’s capable of making,” Steinauer said of Addison.
As well as Banks and Acklin, the Ticats lost hybrid receiver/fullback Nikola Kalinic to the NFL, which opens the door for 2021’s No. 1 CFL draft choice, Jake Burt, to step up, and could also influence the Ticats’ approach to next Tuesday’s Canadian draft.
Burt had impressed in early training camp but was injured.
When training camp finally opened in July last year, all the focus was on the quarterbacking battle that Jeremiah Masoli narrowly won over Evans.
But, 10 months later, this is definitely Evans’ team, as the Ticats chose to sign him over Masoli, who is now with Burke in Ottawa.
Steinauer and his football operations and coaching staffs emphasize internal competition so often the players could use it as a mantra during their yoga stretching exercises: “Ommmm. commmmpete.”
There will be several intriguing battles for jobs: at offensive tackle, wide side linebacker, backup quarterback and for starting roles in the secondary and receiving corps.
Steinauer said exhibition games against Montreal and Toronto will be a welcome change from last summer, when the first full contact outside of internal competition was the season opener in Winnipeg. This year, the coaching staff will have more evidence upon which to make roster decisions and young players get more live reps on offence and defence to show what they can do.
The football team’s most compelling battles will be about the foot and the ball. The Ticats weren’t satisfied, nor should they have been, with last year’s kicking game. Australian punter Joel Whitford and Canadian kicker Michael Domagala are back, and the Ticats have also added Irish rugby player Tahg Leader and Canadian Dante Brown.
“I’m looking forward to that competition,” Steinauer agreed. “It’s an area we want to improve, but the ones we have coming back we’re excited about, too. I think there’s been a lot of growth there. A lot of us who played a long time in this league didn’t always work out in the first go-round.”