GM Desjardins fired in Hamilton

[Solar Max]

As per TSN.

http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/news_story/?ID=222190&hubname=cfl

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have fired general manager Marcel Desjardins.

A league source requesting anonymity confirmed the move late Sunday night and said the Ticats will make the announcement official Monday.

Desjardins completed his first full season as Ticats general manager Saturday with the club's 21-19 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos. Despite the win, Hamilton finished the 2007 campaign last in the East Division with a CFL-worst 3-15 record, which was worse than last year's 4-14 mark.

Desjardins was named Ticats general manager Aug. 29, 2006.

Prior to joining the Ticats, Desjardins, a native of Burlington, Ont., spent five seasons as the assistant general manager of the Montreal Alouettes.

Guess this means the TigerCats start over from scratch...again.

[Stui]

Guess this means the TigerCats start over from scratch...again.

And he'd been doing a stellar job at Montreal. Unreal.

[stansz]

mmmm i personally think that the GM need mroe then one season to really establish himself for a team

[MacNews]

mmmm i personally think that the GM need mroe then one season to really establish himself for a team

I'd give Taafe at least one more year too.

[WestCoastJoe]

That is too bad.

For the good of the league, I hope Hamilton gets things going in the right direction. The owner seems committed to the team, but this does not look like a good move. Does Taaffe get both portfolios?

The GM that should be fired is Danny Maciocia in Edmonton. But it seems Rick LeLacheur is his number one fan. That poor franchise is in the toilet, and will remain so while the little, well-intentioned, under-qualified, in-over-his-head Chipmunk remains in charge. Just a hard reality of life. Gluey Huey threw the Eskimos an anchor on his way out the door. Or perhaps he hoped his son Rick could pick up the pieces and follow the incompetent Maciocia as the boss in the EE.

I don't seem to have any anger left toward the EE. Hugh Campbell must have been the major factor in the previous arrogance of that franchise. Now that he is gone, and the franchise is in a state of chaos (and a state of denial), my feelings of hostility have dissipated.

[No Ordinary Joe]

I don't agree with this move at all. For a team that had/has as much wrong with it as Hamilton does, it's too much to ask for somebody to completely turn things around in that short amount of time. The fact that they were a game worse than last year shouldn't factor in at all, they had plenty of injuries this year and shuffled through a lot of different QBs. Bad move, but I hope that Hamilton turns it around.

[rb]

Usually you wouldn't fire a guy after just one full season but Desjardins did a brutal job. One of the worst series of trades I've seen a club make in a year. And I wouldn't say that he brought in much talent from down south, either. The bar was set pretty low in Hamilton the last couple of years and he managed to lower it even further. Sean Millington was on Desjardins' case just a couple of games into the season; I'd say Milly was justified.

Hamilton's owner and senior management better figure out how to bring in some competent football people, quickly.

[WestCoastJoe]

Well, he did make some bad trades.

* Traded DJ Flick plus Wayne Smith for Rocky Butler and a 2007 2nd round pick. Butler is gone. Flick played well.

* Traded Tad Kornegay to Saskatchewan for Thyron Anderson and Jason French. Anderson is gone. French had so-so year.

* Traded Corey Holmes and Chris Getzlaf for receiver Jason Armstead (so-so year).

* Traded Jason Maas for Jeff Piercy (unknown quantity).

I wonder if we could have gotten him to take dB/chimpy off our hands for a roll of tape.

[Big Time]

All those trades were questionable, but in my opinion his biggest mistake was the coaching staff. Taffe and Co. are absolutely clueless about the Canadian game and have little to no understanding of how to use a guy like Printers. Nothing short of a total clean house is going to resurrect the Ticats. I'm thinking that this move paves the way for the Ticats to bring Don Matthews in as GM/Coach.

[stansz]

their style of offense is totally unsuited for the CFL style and printers style as big time has just stated....

the corey holmes trade i dont think was that bad..i mean holmes wasnt being used and they needed a reciever

again..maas wasnt going to be used....

dj flick trade was pretty bad...

others i cant really comment on

but again...i would tend to think that the ownership has to give at least the GM another year...keep this group together and see wat can be done

[LFITQ]

I don't like this at all. I think the firing of Desjardins was another boneheaded knee-jerk reaction.

Taafe is a bonafide CFL coach. he has had success here. His assistants, maybe not so much, but the only way to get new blood into the system is to give these guys chances.

No one should have thought Desjardins could turn this around in one season. If you did then you don't know what is going on.

Even Bobby Ackles wanted to take a full year to get a grip on the team in BC before he did too much (read his book and you will see what I am talking about). So the least you could do is give Desjardins a full year to at least get acclimatized.

Many of the trades mentioned above may not have panned out, but let's face it, DJ Flick wasn't exactly ripping it up in Steel town. Casey Printers was a bandaid for this season and his real value won't hit until next season with a full training camp under his belt. Jason Armstead is still to be developed because he is going from a team that is vying for the cup to a team that is rebuilding. Remember at one point Taafe told his players NOT to block on kick returns because they were getting too many penalties. So that can't bode well for Armstead as a returner if he has no blocking going on for him. As a receiver, give him a consistent QB throwing to him and you might get some results.

If Lumsden can heal up and hit the season fully healthy next year, he is going to be a force to be reckoned wiht that will also help this team. Zeke Moreno didn't look too bad out there and gives the defence something they can build around.

Nick Setta gives them some reliable kicking, which in the CFL is of a prime concern. So this alleviates one headache for the coaching staff.

Desjardins put some pieces together here (and inherited a few) that should give rise to some optimism for Ticat fans. This knee jerk reaction of firing Desjardins may just be another setback that the Ticats don't need.

Now they will have to get another GM in who will need another year to evaluate, who Taafe isn't "his coach" so there might be some concerns there, and a GM who hasn't really been around all the guys and coaches to get a feel for what they have. IMHO, this is yet another step backwards for the team because they will be rebuilding and still getting to know one another in the clubhouse (office) for yet another year.

Whomever is giving Bob Young advice, doesn't seem to be doing a very good job of it.

[B.C.FAN]

Whomever is giving Bob Young advice, doesn't seem to be doing a very good job of it.

Well said. There have been too many snap judgments in Hamilton. The firing of former coach of the year Greg Marshall just four games into the 2006 season was an example, as was the rush to demote Jason Maas and replace him by an overmatched Timmy Chang for the Labour Day game in Toronto this year and the rush to sign Casey Printers to a CFL-best contract a few weeks later and to start him after just three practices. They're all moves orchestrated by Young or his advisers to try to appease a restless fan base, and they're all counterproductive.

For years under previous ownership regimes, the Hamilton and Ottawa franchises marketed their losing teams by hyping the newly arrived quarterback or receiver who would be thrown into action in the hope of putting fans in the seats and wins on the scoreboard. It's a hopeless tactic, and is partly responsible for the death of the first Ottawa franchise.

Bob Ackles, Wally Buono and their staffs have shown that finding and developing talent takes time and patience, but it's a winning formula. Making hasty moves wastes talent and is a losing formula.