Yes, it would be great if we could find ourselves a good NI O lineman. If we can’t land a FA, I wonder what the negotiating dynamic would be with Montreal for Giguere… Do they have an OL we’d want? Would they be willing to give one up for the rights to Giguere? Would his preference to play in Montreal and his Quebec background make landing him a priority for the Als, or would they rather sit by and wait for him to become available later on at low/ no trade cost? Only Obie and Popp really know the relative bargaining positions of the two clubs.
Now let's please unload Giguere so we can stop wondering 10x a month if he's eventually going to grace us with his presence.Hopefully we can at least get a pick or a camp body for him
Receiver isn’t a position of weakness for us. I doubt we’d flip an offensive lineman for the rights to a receiver, homegrown or not. You wouldn’t get any of our starting o-linemen either, just a prospect or backup like Bomben, Matte, etc.
That goes for any team on any given year, so I don’t see why we need to emphasize it so much.It’s like we’re waiting for them to fail so we can say HA!!! I TOLD YOU SO OBIE! grabs the torches and pitchforks
Well, that’s one perspective on it. Some other posters here feel like Hamilton’s position is a bit stronger than that. You may well be right-- I guess only Obie and Popp know for sure.
I wonder if a deciding factor in Andy Fantuz coming to Hamilton [not Toronto]
was that Obie promised him all our home games will be played in London in 2013.
P.S.
Western University in London will certainly be getting a lot of games that year.
It wouldn't be a bad idea for the Tiger Cats to market the London area aggressively
to see if they can get a big whack of season ticket holders from that area after 2013.
Why not make Western our home field and send busloads of Ticat fans from area malls.
up the relatively light-travelled 4 lane 403 highway west to London every "home" game?
Holy cow batman...can this day get any better!
Just opened my email to see not only the schedule, which I might add is great for me, but there is a great email from the Caretaker providing the great news about Fantuz.
Welcome Andy, you're gonna look great in black and gold!!
With Fantuz here and Thigpen gone, what does that do to our use of imports at the receiver positions? Last year, we went with three import receivers, with either two NI receivers or one NI receiver and an NI TE/FB (Darcy Brown). Thigpen leaving reduces our import depth, and Fantuz increases our NI depth (assuming we can re-sign Carter).
So, do we drop to two import receivers, or do we leave it as is? And if we leave it as is, would we want to move to an import TE/FB for our four-receiver sets, leaving Stala and Fantuz on the field? Or could we use Fantuz as a tight-end on those plays? He's built like an old-school tight-end, but I have no idea how good a blocker he is. (And would we want to risk him getting injured in the trenches?)
Wow!!! So they finally got the player they should have drafted years ago....right Vinny? As a Ticat fan, I'm as happy as hell and the schedule has worked out to be awesome for me as well. What a great day to be a Tiger-Cat fan!!!
I really don’t see a downside to playing in London (other than the fact that Hamilton will miss the games while the stadium is being built). I can see people from Woodstock , Strathroy, Chatham, and anywhere else in a 60 mile radius joining the base we have in Brantford and Kitchener for games. Maybe even “the NFL lovers” in Windsor will make the trek East. (Windsor has such a long history of Canadian football connections. I would not be surprised to see some Detroit fans as well)
London has lots of “sports bars” and motels are reasonably priced. Perhaps some of the seating that is added there will stay. I see it as a win-win all around. Let’s hope it happens.
Assuming Fantuz and Stala will start, the pressing need now is N/I receiver depth. I'd be shocked if Obie doesn't take a receiver with the first round pick. Giguere would be great (especially on kick returns) but we can't count on him at this point. With two nasty concussions in the past two years I'm not sure we could count on Carter either if he re-signs.
Andy Fantuz is a very welcome addition to the Hamilton Tiger Cats and its nice to see him able
to play games close to his home town of Chatham and Western University. I'm certain that being in
his prime, he will add much excitement to our offense.
That being said, I continue to feel that our defensive pass protection requires immediate surgery.
I really feel that this situation needs addressing right now, along with NI linemen on O and D.
I'm sure that Obie is looking to bolster these areas before the team goes to training camp.