By Steve Milton

Among what has been a significant number of unusual Hamilton Tiger-Cats seasons, the most unusual has just passed the halfway point.

Nine gone, nine to go. And Kent Austin, protective – right down to his shoe laces – of his team’s inside culture, won’t divulge where he thought this group might be in early September nor what he thinks of its 4-5 record.

So we’ll have to step in for him.

The Ticats, it says here but not in indelible ink, are not in bad shape. Partly because they’ve held the rudder through some pretty rough waters, partly because their compass is pointed forward.

And partly because the eastern division is what it is. Pick your own adjective, but don’t feel the need to be kind.

Until further notice, which probably won’t come until 2014, the Blue Bombers are out of it. And with Ricky Ray down until at least they play the Ticats early next month, the Argos have drifted back to the pack. The Alouettes have already fired a coach, are getting a nine-game taste of life post-Calvillo, and while they’ve shown flashes, are not nearly the monolith of menace that they had been for the better part of two decades.

You could throw a blanket over the Cats, Als and Argos, with a single game separating them. And you could throw up all over the Bombers.

That's not to say the Cats have the playoffs necessarily made, but Winnipeg doesn’t seem much of a challenge and with Edmonton similarly dysfunctional (although a lot more exciting), the threat of a post-season crossover is remote.

The Cats can’t think this way, but outside events – meaning, mostly, the relative erosion of the East Division – have created a helpful milieu for a season in which they are without a true practice home and a true game home and are bringing in a new coaching staff, a ton of new players and a new culture.

During the season, Austin and his coaches talk publicly only about winning the next game. But Austin, as a football man and GM, has a broader view too, both within a season and beyond it. So development is important and sometimes development has a cost in either points not scored, or extra points surrendered, or both. It is a price that has to be paid and the Cats have been paying it, particularly in the first quarter of the season.

But it hasn’t been a lethal price. Hamilton is two points out of first and a long way from last. Had the Cats not made that latter separation by taking four of five from Winnipeg and Edmonton or had the Als and Argos just run away and hidden, Hamilton might – gusting up to surely – have had to sacrifice some areas of player development just to get necessary points in the standings. There would be a subtle desperation, perhaps some obviously short-term solutions, because a second playoff-less season under a second new coach would not be acceptable.

But the Cats have been able to beat the teams they should beat while not beating any of the more elite squads, and still remain in the thick of things competitively while also inching then taking larger steps, up the growth and cohesion charts.

They have discovered a number of very helpful things including that Canadian safety Courtney Stephen can play at an import level, that Brian Bulcke is a Canadian gem and that with he and Torrey Davis in the middle, the defensive line has a chance to be a force, that guard Greg Wojt was a steal from the Esks, that receiver Sam Giguere can indeed make a difference, that pivot Dan LeFevour has an invaluable skill set, and that Henry Burris has gone Ponce de Leon one better, and actually discovered the fountain of youth.

“The bottom line is that our team has stayed focused,” Burris says. “We have a lot of new things that are taking place here. We’ve got a lot of new faces that are coming in and out of here. We’ve dealt with injuries, and with a home that’s on the road.

“You’ve never heard our team use any excuses. All we’ve ever focused on is getting better each week and doing what we can to win. We’re getting more consistent, we’re executing better, regardless of all the changes that we’ve had. Things are still heading in the right direction so it shows you that we have a mentally tough team.

“I think it just comes from our coaching staff. The attitude was set by the coaches upstairs.”

And the setting has been aided by the disasters in northern Alberta and southern Manitoba, and by the injuries to Ricky Ray and Anthony Calvillo.

There is still a long way to go. The Cats must start winning against teams which have more than a single victory. The defence is still not consistent, the secondary is being re-jigged yet again, kick returns are uninspiring, there isn’t a real deep threat in the receiving corps and, gasp, there are too many surrendered sacks.

But there is still half a season to remedy those issues, with none of the urgency that has hovered over second halves around here for most of this century. And this in a season when stadium and travel issues could have created massive problems.

That absence of desperation can be attributed in large part to Austin and his staff. But what’s transpiring elsewhere is a significant contributor too.