This I Find Odd

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South Pender
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MexicoLionFan wrote:The draft is approaching and our FA camps have started, so there is time to turn things around, but you have to approach Wally this season with a little skepticism based on his last 2 years.

And think about this...with FA, we lost out on a lot of players to other teams when Vancouver and BC have a lot going for them...Wally may have dug himself a bit of a hole here.
All true. I can't understand the Lions' inability to attract any free agents unless Wally has been really penny-pinching this year. You'd have to think players would rather be in Vancouver during the football season than in Regina or Winnipeg (no offense to residents of those cities intended), but that doesn't seem to be working for us. I keep wondering whether Wally has a master plan here that we're not seeing ("All discord, harmony not understood"), and that perhaps we'll end up strong personnel-wise after all. As you say, there's still time....
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Hambone
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South Pender wrote:All true. I can't understand the Lions' inability to attract any free agents unless Wally has been really penny-pinching this year. You'd have to think players would rather be in Vancouver during the football season than in Regina or Winnipeg (no offense to residents of those cities intended), but that doesn't seem to be working for us. I keep wondering whether Wally has a master plan here that we're not seeing ("All discord, harmony not understood"), and that perhaps we'll end up strong personnel-wise after all. As you say, there's still time....
I think there is a direct relationship between the inability to attract FAs and how close to, if not slightly over, the cap the Lions were last year. I think that's why the Riders were also inactive in free agency other than to say good-bye their departures.
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TheLionKing
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Cost of living in Lotusland is higher than say Winnipeg which may be a factor in drawing free agents
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KnowItAll
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TheLionKing wrote:Cost of living in Lotusland is higher than say Winnipeg which may be a factor in drawing free agents
cost of living in each city should factor into each teams salary caps and players salaries.
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sj-roc
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KnowItAll wrote:
TheLionKing wrote:Cost of living in Lotusland is higher than say Winnipeg which may be a factor in drawing free agents
cost of living in each city should factor into each teams salary caps and players salaries.
Perhaps, but it would be a difficult thing to quantify for the league to say, ok, the Lions get $xx,000 more to spend on player salaries than everyone else (or whatever). How does one decide on these amounts and who gets them? It would also have to be reviewed and adjusted from one year to the next every year, or at least every few years, creating a lot of extra paperwork for whatever possible benefit it would deliver (if any). And that's assuming teams in markets that would be faced with lower caps could even be persuaded to go along with it. Fans of these teams would be a hard sell, too. You think every Rider fan and his dog wouldn't pile on here (on this board, I mean) if Cohon suddenly decided we were entitled to extra cap space?
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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Coast Mountain Lion
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Hambone wrote:
sj-roc wrote:The surprising part to me is that Rider fans haven't stuffed the ballot box for their own on this one.
That's astonishing for sure. I'm with you on that one SJ. Wally being listed so far down is less surprising to me than Taman not being at the top thanks to Riders fans love of any CFL poll, especially with a Rider option to blindly stuff. They must've all been out ice fishing or at a curling bonspiel.
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JohnHenry
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We should remember that Huff is still an active CFL coach while Wally has "retired". The question was: "Which veteran GM would you most want leading your team?"

Many respondents might overlook Wally (who is half-retired and on the downsizing of his career) as the guy to bring in as their new GM...while Huff and Austin are still active coaches and might relish the challenge of re-building another franchise. I don't think this poll is an indictment of Wally's accomplishments, any more than a dispersion against Taman who could be rated higher considering the rabid Rider fanbase who usually dominate these online polls, his relative youth and being the architect of the 2013 GC champions.

I don't think the lack of FA signings reflects negatively on the Lion organization either. The Lions normally choose to scout and develop their own players, not castoffs from other teams. It usually comes down to money. The Lions just don't value these FA's that highly and the players will often get a bigger payday from another team.

:roar:
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Rammer wrote:
Shi Zi Mi wrote:You guys are way over thinking this........like Hambone, I put no credence in these polls as they are nothing more than popularity contests.......nothing to do with the realities of football.
Who in their right mind has the time to enter this type of contest multiple times to gain the satisfaction of putting their team/club/player over the top? It makes little sense for the rational thinker to enter once, knowing the end result will have some fanatic(s) punching away on their keyboard 100's of times to influence the outcome. I think more to the point the fanbase that doesn't submit a vote or has the least amount of votes actually shows true intellect.

You might want to be careful not to mention that to your friends at Riderfans.

:cool:
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MexicoLionFan
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JohnHenry wrote:We should remember that Huff is still an active CFL coach while Wally has "retired". The question was: "Which veteran GM would you most want leading your team?"

Many respondents might overlook Wally (who is half-retired and on the downsizing of his career) as the guy to bring in as their new GM...while Huff and Austin are still active coaches and might relish the challenge of re-building another franchise. I don't think this poll is an indictment of Wally's accomplishments, any more than a dispersion against Taman who could be rated higher considering the rabid Rider fanbase who usually dominate these online polls, his relative youth and being the architect of the 2013 GC champions.

I don't think the lack of FA signings reflects negatively on the Lion organization either. The Lions normally choose to scout and develop their own players, not castoffs from other teams. It usually comes down to money. The Lions just don't value these FA's that highly and the players will often get a bigger payday from another team.

:roar:
Apparently, in a couple of occasions the Lions outbid opponents and still lost out on the FA...clearly something is up beyond salary cap...perhaps it is just the cost of living in BC...taxed to death...
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David
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Just curious MLF, do you have an inside scoop on the Lions' FA offers or perhaps read this somewhere? The only player that I am aware of in which a player chose not to sign here despite a higher offer was our own Josh Bell. I seem to recall reading somewhere that he took slightly less money to sign with the Stamps (but this may have more to do with following his Defensive Coordinator, Rich Stubler or other mitigating factors).

Here are some others they targeted:

Nick Moore - it's no secret that we were outbid by the Bombers, who threw more than $180K his way. I can live with this.
Josh Bourke - no way they were going to offer more than other teams. Moreover, no way the Als were going to be outbid.
Shea Emry - doubtful that the Leos made a big pitch to the Vancouver-born middle linebacker. We're too good and too deep at this position.
Wayne Smith - not convinced this was anything more than tire-kicking, as I don't think Smith was ever interested in being uprooted and coming west.
Craig Butler - this is the player I thought we'd land but again, I don't think money was a factor. I believe he was more interested in coming home to play. Here's a telling quote in the 2/11 Vancouver Province:
“The offers were pretty much the same,” Buono said of Butler, who agreed on a deal with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats reportedly worth in excess of $150,000. “It was where he wanted to play. He’s making a decision on lifestyle.”


DH :cool:
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MexicoLionFan
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David wrote:Just curious MLF, do you have an inside scoop on the Lions' FA offers or perhaps read this somewhere? The only player that I am aware of in which a player chose not to sign here despite a higher offer was our own Josh Bell. I seem to recall reading somewhere that he took slightly less money to sign with the Stamps (but this may have more to do with following his Defensive Coordinator, Rich Stubler or other mitigating factors).

Here are some others they targeted:

Nick Moore - it's no secret that we were outbid by the Bombers, who threw more than $180K his way. I can live with this.
Josh Bourke - no way they were going to offer more than other teams. Moreover, no way the Als were going to be outbid.
Shea Emry - doubtful that the Leos made a big pitch to the Vancouver-born middle linebacker. We're too good and too deep at this position.
Wayne Smith - not convinced this was anything more than tire-kicking, as I don't think Smith was ever interested in being uprooted and coming west.
Craig Butler - this is the player I thought we'd land but again, I don't think money was a factor. I believe he was more interested in coming home to play. Here's a telling quote in the 2/11 Vancouver Province:
“The offers were pretty much the same,” Buono said of Butler, who agreed on a deal with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats reportedly worth in excess of $150,000. “It was where he wanted to play. He’s making a decision on lifestyle.”


DH :cool:

David the two I was referring to were Butler and Bell. But even with Moore, apparently WIN offered him a little more and he took it...which is bizarre because (A) they don't and haven't had a QB, and (B) its Winnipeg!!! Vancouver is an amazing city to live in for a variety of reasons, that any other city in Canada cannot touch, plus, we have a strong winning tradition, and we play in an amazing stadium...the fact that Travis Lulay is our QB should help as well...if you follow some of Korey Bank's Tweets, he is pretty clear that Wally is not a "popular guy" around the league. However, I have no idea if that is true or not.
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