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In that sense, nothing has changed in a year.

Hamilton, Windsor and London outscored the other three teams in the conference a combined 183-13 last weekend. The Beefs, though, still have to find a way to put a dent in one of the two perennial contenders.

“It’s a three-headed horse and hopefully, we’ll punch our way to the top,” Maddox said. “We’ve got a really good team and there are no excuses. We need to have a statement week. Take care of Windsor, don’t keep it close and people will start realizing we’re serious.”

Chris Marshall, now a Western assistant, elevated London’s program over the past few years and the intention of Maddox is to push it to ongoing elite status.

Not that long ago, it was a struggle to attract enough players to have backups at several key positions. Some weren’t able to attend workouts on a regular basis.

Under Maddox, the roster is 76 strong and 59 of them showed up at practice this week. That’s the usual routine in Hamilton and Windsor, too.

“We have the pieces that are starting to come together,” the coach said. “The guys are very aware I’ll keep bringing in players and we’ll keep competing. We’ve accepted kids back who have screwed up in the past. I told them everyone gets a fair chance here, I don’t care about the history, but if you repeat the same course, then you’re gone.”

Instead of one good arm, there are two in quarterbacks Clarke McCallum and Jake Pow. Both have seen time so far this season, though Pow is coming back after having been cleared from a concussion.