Sure, a tryout. I’m sure a couple of guys will get tryouts. But it would have been nice, especially for PR, is the Tiger-Cats selected a home-grown kid.
Whatever though… it’s not like we’re hurting for Canadian talent!
Stala, Fantuz, and Giguere (if he’s the real deal)… Wow! Just plain Wow!
From the outside certainly looks like an obsession to come and take players out of Montreal's backyard. Team promotes itself as a regional team but actions don't match the claims. Did not learn anything with Rottier situation. I guess if they want to develop players for the Als... Ok by me
Having a team good enough to win a University championship doesn’t necessarily mean that any one player on the team has what it takes to make the leap to the pros. For perspective, consider also that there are currently only 7 McMaster grads on CFL rosters league-wide.
Tor: Mike Bradwell (2008 2nd round by Toronto, born in Toronto, ON)
BC: Jason Arakgi (2008 3rd round by BC, born in Montreal, QC)
Tor: Chris Van Zeyl (2007 3rd round by Montreal, born in Fonthill, ON)
Tor: Andrew Jones (2007 4th round by BC, born in Toronto, ON)
Edm: Kyle Koch (undrafted, signed with Winnipeg in 2007, born in Kenora, ON)
Tor: Jason Pottinger (2006 1st round by BC, born in Whitby, ON)
Ham: Ray Mariuz (2003 4th round by Toronto, born in Mississauga, ON)
In other recent history, the Ticats drafted some kid named Jesse Lumsden in 2005, but it didn’t work out in the long run.
Dissagree the Ticats probably missed out on a couple character players and flunked PR 101 , when will CFLteams learn, WE arent trying to impress NCAA number crunchers , it,s about selling tickets to fill the stadium!!!
I could've sworn it was all about getting the best available players/filling your teams N/I needs to win football games.Last I saw more people cared about Hamilton not winning a grey cup for a long time vs. not having enough Hamilton products on the field.
While I wasn’t a fan of the China Doll it’s impossible to argue that his drafting was anything but gold for Ticats marketing. Heck, even I bought a #28 Lumsden jersey! The attention the media gave to him, etc… it had people who otherwise would not be talking about the CFL talking about the CFL!
There were really only two players talked about leading up to the draft: Quinlan and Mederios. It’s not like the whole team was available and no one went. Two players, one a quarterback, went undrafted. That’s not that surprising, even for a team that won the Vanier. Mac had the best team last year (or at least the hottest team when the playoffs started), but that doesn’t mean they had the best individual players.
First day of sports PR 101 is “winning is the only real PR”.
I’m not saying that any of McMaster’s players are or aren’t as good as Laval’s or any other, but if you believe that the best players available when it’s your turn to pick are on other town’s teams, then you pick them regardless.
Some years you get a couple, some years you don’t. It all evens out.
The attention Lumsden got had a lot more to do with how good he was. Lumsden sold tickets, yes, but Ray Mariuz does not and neither will adding a couple Mac players to the roster. What does sell tickets is winning games.
Quinlan would have had this local hero marketing effect you desire - just by nature of being a QB - but most teams would prefer that their 3rd or 4th string QB not be getting all the attention. Its only a positive if he’s playing, otherwise the PR is a huge distraction.
If Ticat management felt that when Hamilton's turn to draft came up they should turn down a player they thought was the best one and best suited to the team's needs because they figured they should pick a McMaster product instead for "PR reasons", they should be fired.
