Sunday CFL...
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[h=1]For Ticats, Guelph stadium a neutral site no more[/h]
They have only been there eight times ? 10 if you count intra-squad and pre-season games ? but by subtle increments the Tiger-Cats have built Alumni Stadium into their home.
So, we'll have to abandon a line that we'd planned to use this weekend, if it ever came: "The Ticats have spent three months earning neutral-site advantage."
But the hard evidence, and the verbal testimonies of the players, say otherwise. There has been an advantage to the Cats playing at Guelph, especially in the past two months. So it's a good thing they had insisted from the start that if they qualified to stage a post-season game it would be in Guelph not some place like, say, Rogers Centre.
The players always knew that, which made Guelph seem more like a home to them right from the beginning. There was no choice: Alumni was going to be the alpha and omega (with a brief gamma in Moncton) of home games this intriguing season. Had the players even wondered if Toronto would be where they'd play an elimination game, would Guelph have ever fully felt like their place, and their place only? Doubtful.
Kent Austin insisted from the opening drill of training camp that the Ticats would make their Alumni digs their own house. Call him the Oracle of Guelph-I.
It was part of a larger philosophy that this would be a team without crutches: no crying about injuries; no nobody-believes-in-us sermons; and no moaning about playing in front of crowds half the normal size, in a converted university stadium, the better part of an hour from where most of the players live.
That no-whining attitude was the first block in constructing the foundation of ? a home.
After a limping start, the Ticats have responded with their first 10-win season in a dozen years and an overall 5-3 record at Guelph. But parse the numbers a little further, and they're better than they look.
Of the last five games in the Royal City, Hamilton has won four. The one they lost was a blowout to the Stampeders, and their last three wins at Guelph were all very close. In fact, the Cats' average margin of victory in their five Alumni wins was just over eight points. If you win the close ones at home, you've got a home.
Further, disregard the comfortable win over the by-then-done Bombers and that average drops to a mere 5.5 points per game. That's getting close to the three points that bookies traditionally grant any team for home field advantage.
And, faced with the prospect of finishing behind Toronto and Montreal, the Cats beat both of them. In Guelph.
Opposing players have been heard to mutter about Guelph ? the Argos had no hot water at the end of their loss there, a classic Ticats-at-home situation; at least one Alouette complained about having to come back to 'this dump' ? while the Cats walk around like they're living in the high rent district. They want to be there, their opponents don't. Would you call that advantageous? Only if you have a brain.
If a stadium 50 kilometres away is providing a home-field advantage, you could argue that it's because the Ticats have established a day-to-day home in downtown Hamilton.
It might be that the most significant move of the season was creating a locker-room at team headquarters at 1 Jarvis, which was Austin's suggestion. For the first time in years, the entire organization is under one roof and the players see how much work the support staff has put into transforming Alumni Stadium. That makes them feel supported, and attention to detail has made the place an unexpected player magnet. They like being there, so they hang around together.
That place feels so much like home that bus trips to McMaster for practice and optional bus trips Guelph for games are more like Community Outreach programs. The team starts from a position of strength downtown, and spreads it to two other places.
And don't underestimate the team-building value of the short bus ride from Jarvis to Mac.
"We joke around, razz each other, but it's all part of the growth process, as far as getting to know each other," Henry Burris said Friday of a season over which the Cats have employed the largest number of players in their long history.
That short bus ride, taken four times a week, makes the longer one to Guelph every two weeks not only more palatable, but more interesting. So they're not starting game-day off with a negative.
It took a while, and it arrived almost imperceptibly, but playing at Guelph is now an advantage for the Cats and could be more of one when, in playoff mode, the fans lining the narrow isthmus of footpath between the locker rooms will be far less friendly to the visitors than they have been.
But home field advantage doesn't mean a thing unless you take advantage of it.
The Ticats still have to outplay Montreal on Sunday to win.
They have only been there eight times ? 10 if you count intra-squad and pre-season games ? but by subtle increments the Tiger-Cats have built Alumni Stadium into their home.
So, we'll have to abandon a line that we'd planned to use this weekend, if it ever came: "The Ticats have spent three months earning neutral-site advantage."
But the hard evidence, and the verbal testimonies of the players, say otherwise. There has been an advantage to the Cats playing at Guelph, especially in the past two months. So it's a good thing they had insisted from the start that if they qualified to stage a post-season game it would be in Guelph not some place like, say, Rogers Centre.
The players always knew that, which made Guelph seem more like a home to them right from the beginning. There was no choice: Alumni was going to be the alpha and omega (with a brief gamma in Moncton) of home games this intriguing season. Had the players even wondered if Toronto would be where they'd play an elimination game, would Guelph have ever fully felt like their place, and their place only? Doubtful.
Kent Austin insisted from the opening drill of training camp that the Ticats would make their Alumni digs their own house. Call him the Oracle of Guelph-I.
It was part of a larger philosophy that this would be a team without crutches: no crying about injuries; no nobody-believes-in-us sermons; and no moaning about playing in front of crowds half the normal size, in a converted university stadium, the better part of an hour from where most of the players live.
That no-whining attitude was the first block in constructing the foundation of ? a home.
After a limping start, the Ticats have responded with their first 10-win season in a dozen years and an overall 5-3 record at Guelph. But parse the numbers a little further, and they're better than they look.
Of the last five games in the Royal City, Hamilton has won four. The one they lost was a blowout to the Stampeders, and their last three wins at Guelph were all very close. In fact, the Cats' average margin of victory in their five Alumni wins was just over eight points. If you win the close ones at home, you've got a home.
Further, disregard the comfortable win over the by-then-done Bombers and that average drops to a mere 5.5 points per game. That's getting close to the three points that bookies traditionally grant any team for home field advantage.
And, faced with the prospect of finishing behind Toronto and Montreal, the Cats beat both of them. In Guelph.
Opposing players have been heard to mutter about Guelph ? the Argos had no hot water at the end of their loss there, a classic Ticats-at-home situation; at least one Alouette complained about having to come back to 'this dump' ? while the Cats walk around like they're living in the high rent district. They want to be there, their opponents don't. Would you call that advantageous? Only if you have a brain.
If a stadium 50 kilometres away is providing a home-field advantage, you could argue that it's because the Ticats have established a day-to-day home in downtown Hamilton.
It might be that the most significant move of the season was creating a locker-room at team headquarters at 1 Jarvis, which was Austin's suggestion. For the first time in years, the entire organization is under one roof and the players see how much work the support staff has put into transforming Alumni Stadium. That makes them feel supported, and attention to detail has made the place an unexpected player magnet. They like being there, so they hang around together.
That place feels so much like home that bus trips to McMaster for practice and optional bus trips Guelph for games are more like Community Outreach programs. The team starts from a position of strength downtown, and spreads it to two other places.
And don't underestimate the team-building value of the short bus ride from Jarvis to Mac.
"We joke around, razz each other, but it's all part of the growth process, as far as getting to know each other," Henry Burris said Friday of a season over which the Cats have employed the largest number of players in their long history.
That short bus ride, taken four times a week, makes the longer one to Guelph every two weeks not only more palatable, but more interesting. So they're not starting game-day off with a negative.
It took a while, and it arrived almost imperceptibly, but playing at Guelph is now an advantage for the Cats and could be more of one when, in playoff mode, the fans lining the narrow isthmus of footpath between the locker rooms will be far less friendly to the visitors than they have been.
But home field advantage doesn't mean a thing unless you take advantage of it.
The Ticats still have to outplay Montreal on Sunday to win.
In Montreal, the Ticats will face a team they beat in two of three meeting this season but features a veteran-laden roster with plenty of playoff experience. The Als' pressure defence has given the Ticats fits at times ? they've surrendered 12 sacks in the three games and struggled to get the running game going in a thorough 36-5 thrashing in Montreal on Oct. 20.
"We need to make sure we are schematically sound with respect to their strengths and eliminate situations that expose some of our weaknesses," Austin said.
The Ticats, however, appear to be the healthier club.
Receiver Greg Ellingson is expected to play as is defensive back Delvin Breaux while the Alouettes will likely be without defensive back Byron Parker. Linebacker Kyries Hebert, who sparked controversy this week with his comments that the Alouettes "beat the hell" out of the Ticats this season, is a game-time decision.
"We need to make sure we are schematically sound with respect to their strengths and eliminate situations that expose some of our weaknesses," Austin said.
The Ticats, however, appear to be the healthier club.
Receiver Greg Ellingson is expected to play as is defensive back Delvin Breaux while the Alouettes will likely be without defensive back Byron Parker. Linebacker Kyries Hebert, who sparked controversy this week with his comments that the Alouettes "beat the hell" out of the Ticats this season, is a game-time decision.
