Boatmen looking forward to fresh start in new home
HAMILTON— It was around 10 p.m. on Saturday night, a playoff game less than 12 hours away, and Simoni Lawrence wasn’t ready to call it a night yet.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats all-star linebacker made his way into the locker room at Tim Hortons Field and got comfortable — as comfortable as one can be — in a cold tub. The final prep made a difference for him, and in turn Lawrence did his part on game day, making two tackles in limited action after he suffered an undisclosed injury in the Ticats’ 25-22 win over the Toronto Argonauts.
“It’s always accessible to us,” Lawrence said of the facilities at the Tiger-Cats’ still-new stadium, his team headed to its third consecutive CFL East Division final.
“It’s top of the line and it’s just ours. We’ve got everything here that we could use and the players tend to stay here longer,” he continued. “We’re supposed to be out of work at one, but players stay until six o’clock. Even if somebody leaves, they come back and I’ll see them at nine. It’s a great facility.”
Justin Medlock’s 47-yard field goal with no time left on the clock gave the Tiger-Cats life and spelled the end of an Argos season that lacked anything that resembled the comforts of home.
Pushed out by the Pan Am Games in June, the Argos started their season with a home game in Fort McMurray, Alta., against an Edmonton Eskimos team that’s just four hours south. The playoff success of the Blue Jays shifted Argos home games to Ottawa in October, and a pair to Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton. In Alberta and in both Hamilton games the turnouts were abysmal.
The problems go back further than this year. The Argos had to find new practice grounds in 2014 before eventually ending up at Downsview Park, and were routinely handed the leftover dates at the Rogers Centre every year when the league tried to make its schedule.
Still, Argos quarterback Ricky Ray wouldn’t say that he felt his team deserved better in all of this.
“I don’t know if we deserved anything,” he said, his contract up and his future with the Argos in question.
“This team went through a lot this year. A lot of road games and everybody held together pretty good. I’m just proud of the way we were able to handle those types of situations.
“We put ourselves in this spot to do something special in the playoffs and we came up short. I don’t know if we deserved anything, but I obviously wish we had a different result.”
The Argos didn’t get into the Rogers Centre for an actual home game until Aug. 8 and had trouble pulling in fans. They still posted a 10-8 record, going 5-4 on the road and at “home” this year, backing up much of the team’s talk throughout all of this that they could focus on the task at hand, wherever it was being handled.
“Honestly I think our team responded well to it,” said defensive lineman Cleyon Laing, who wondered loudly in the locker room if he could still be fined for criticizing refs with his season now over.
“Last year we kind of went through the same thing, not having a facility to practise at. As a whole I think our team deals with adversity really well.”
It’s hard to think of next year, Laing said, with the present-day goal having not been accomplished. But new ownership, a new home at BMO Field and some of that consistency that Lawrence enjoys these days await the Argos in 2016.
“The things that happen throughout the season, honestly they’re behind me now,” Argos coach Scott Milanovich said. “I felt like we deserved a better fate, and I feel like any coach that loses like that probably feels that way.”
“It was tough for the guys, for sure,” Argos kicker Swayze Waters said. “Unfortunately for me I was injured a lot of the year. It’s hard to get in a groove.”