I watched the Bombers home opener against Alouettes last night and came away with three observations:

1. the new Winnipeg stadium looks very nice on TV (though their Canadian flag is wayyyyy too small.)

2. the Bomber defence coughed up a relatively sizable fourth quarter lead and allowed 38 points. It would be wrong to hang all that on former Ticat defensive coordinator Casey Creehan, now running the show in Winnipeg because the offence went to sleep too. But it sure felt familiar...

3. the former Ticats playing for the Alouettes, including receiver Arland Bruce (five catches, 35 yards, drew a late flag that helped give the Als insurance points) and defensive back Geoff Tisdale (a pick) played a role.

Here's the story from Montreal, the story from Winnipeg and a link to the highlights.

Alright, now on to the good stuff.

The common question I get asked at this time of year: how do you think the Ticats are going to do this season?

My standard answer lately has been this: I think the Ticats have a real chance in an East Division that has a lot of question marks. Montreal has a new coaching staff and an old QB, the Argos were a 9-9 team last year and have six new defensive starters and Winnipeg is, well, Winnipeg. They essentially stood pat this year, hoping that a 6-12 team would develop into a contender. That seems silly but it actually worked before: they missed the playoffs in 2010, then made the Grey Cup in 2011.

Ticat fans usually frown when I give this answer. What they want is either effusive praise or a vicious condemnation of their team, depending on their own opinions on the matter.

Predicting what's going to happen in the CFL is virtually impossible but that's not the only reason I'm reluctant to be definitive in my response. I've come to understand that what I think doesn't mean a whole lot: it's what I know that's worth something.

This is a sports writing philosophy that I've learned from Steve, who fills his columns with facts and observations and uses them to support his conclusions. It's what makes his writing not only interesting but informative – watching him to do it on a day-to-day basis has been an on the job education like no other. In a media world filled with blowhards who don't know much but have an endless stream of loudly spoken opnions (a great many of them wrong) rare is the hack who actually spends time watching and listening.

In my case, part of the issue is learning to trust what I see. Last season, there were giant warning signs that things weren't going well - George Cortez's old school ways, his terseness with the media (which belied a lack of social interaction skills that a head coach needs) and Casey Creehan's belittling coaching style – but I didn't recognize them as harbinger of trouble. Cortez was only the second coach I'd ever seen in action so I didn't have a lot to compare it to.

The genesis for the opening paragraphs of my story today – which again focuses on my how things have changed – came last Friday, cut down day. I was standing the Tiger-Town Tavern, upstairs in the Ticat offices at 1 Jarvis waiting for Austin to speak to the media. A bunch of players walked in, the vets giving the rookies a tour of the new digs. Jamall Johnson was talking to another player and didn't see me. "It's never felt like this here," he said.

I don't always put a lot of stock in what players say, if only because they've been conditioned to say a lot without saying very much at all. But JJ wasn't talking to me: it was an off-the-cuff comment that I recognized as genuine.

Because I don't use quotes gained by eavesdropping – my own personal rule for this job is that if the player or coach doesn't say it into my tape recorder, it's off the record – I asked JJ about what he said this week at practice, if he was OK with me using it. "I've been saying it to everybody," he told me.

And so I can tell you this, based on what I've seen and I've heard: the Ticats as a team have bought into whatever Kent Austin is selling. I would have diminished the value of that before last season but after watching a team that was so clearly not in step with the coaching staff last season, I've decided that culture and unity are more important than you think. A team still needs talent and execution and luck and all those other things: but if they aren't drinking the coach's Kool-Aid, it's hard to win.

So how do I think the Ticats are going to do this season? Better, for sure. Maybe a lot better.

By Drew Edwards

MISSISSAUGA And so the Hamilton Ticats are starting over, again.

On Friday night, for the third time in three CFL seasons, Hamilton will take to the field with a new head coach and a roster filled with new and largely inexperienced players.

But linebacker Jamall Johnson, who's now in his fifth season with the Ticats, says 2013 feels different.

"The camaraderie, the positive vibes from the coaching staff, it's been great," Johnson said. "Everything is in place for us to do our jobs with a high level of confidence and comfort."

After suffering through a 6-12 season that featured plenty of turmoil under former coach George Cortez, the Cats cleaned house and brought in Kent Austin as head coach and general manager.

While the old-school Cortez eschewed words such as "culture," it has been a focus of Austin throughout his first Ticats training camp.

"I tell the players all the time, it's their football team and they can be as close or as fragmented as they want to be and hopefully we have the right guys from a character standpoint," Austin said. "Every player doesn't get the value of character at the same level because everybody's at a different point of their maturation process and understanding why that's valuable."

The first test for the new-look Ticats should be a good one: the defending Grey Cup-champion Toronto Argonauts. And, while Austin identified several on-field keys to winning, Ticat quarterback Henry Burris acknowledged watching the Argos celebrate their 2012 championship would be a motivating factor for some players but stressed — and Austin emphasized this point further — staying focused was paramount.

"Hey, congratulations they did it last year but this is a new year. If they want to celebrate, hopefully we can make this our coming-out party," Burris said. "If somebody is going to have a party when you're the guest, it does get you going,"

Despite their status as defending champs, the Argos have made a number of changes to their lineup, particularly on defence where they will roll out six new starters against the Ticats. They also lost their defensive-backs coach when Orlondo Steinauer signed on as the Ticats' defensive co-ordinator.

But Steinauer scoffed at the notion his insider knowledge would be a factor in dissecting the defence run by his former boss, Argos defensive co-ordinator Chris Jones.

"I understand what they did last year, but coach Jones is innovative, he's going to add new things, new signals — that's just the way he thinks and that's what's made him successful," Steinauer said.

It's now been 13 years since the last Ticats Grey Cup championship. And, while the Ticats are saddled with the same lofty expectations they opened 2012 with, Austin has set the bar as high as it will go this season.

"We only have one goal: that's to be the best. That's it. I don't know why else we'd play, other than to be champions," he said. "Anything else is not worthy of the effort."

Johnson, who won a Grey Cup with the B.C. Lions in 2006, says Austin and the organization have set the table for a strong season and the rest is up to the players.

"Everything has been first class. They treat us like men, like pros. Everything that's going on right now, it's great feeling," he said. "Now we have to do it on the field."

NOTES: The Ticats have added linebacker Philippe Dubuisson-Lebon and defensive back Erik Harris to the active roster, while moving defensive lineman Sam Scott to the practice roster and Shomari Williams to the one-game injured list. ... The Argos are hosting a tailgate party outside gates 10 and 11 of the Rogers Centre starting at 5 p.m. Country musician Tim Hicks will perform and he's also the halftime entertainment. ... Former Ticat and Argo defensive back Jason Shivers is now a defensive assistant with Toronto. ... The game will be called on TSN by the tandem of Gord Miller and Matt Dunigan.

XXX

The rivalry returns

By Steve Milton

MISSISSAUGA – Over the past five seasons, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats have won 10 of their 18 head-to-head meetings with the Toronto Argonauts.

Since statistics are never supposed to lie, that would make the Tiger-Cats the more successful of the two ancient rivals, right?

Ha.

Here's a little recent history lesson, class, so follow along closely.

Even when the colour scheme is black, gold, blue and blue, not every game is created equal, except on paper where they're usually not played. Some losses are LOSSES, felt to the bone and beyond and the Cats are the ones who've incurred almost all of the upper-case humiliation in the past half-decade.

Flash back to November 2010, yet another of those land-of-milk-and-honey seasons when the Cats were supposed to challenge for the Grey Cup if not win it. The Argos came into their most inhospitable road stadium and, in very uns*ck-like fashion, beat the Ticats in a playoff game by three points, supposedly the exact margin of home-field advantage.

And take last year. Please take last year.

Wasn't it enough that, in the very last Labour Day Classic at Ivor Wynne, the time and place of some of the most inglorious pratfalls in Toronto sports history, the Argonauts beat the Tiger-Cats, 33-30?

Nooooo, of course not. Two months later at Rogers Centre, in the final game of the regular season and the Ticats having to win to avoid elimination, the Argonauts won by … well guess how much? Three points, although it might as well have been a million. If you'll recall, Toronto sat down a number of regulars, including quarterback Ricky Ray so, in effect, the Ticats were beaten by the other team's shadow.

And, let's not forget that, while the Argos were winning the Grey Cup (their second since Hamilton's most recent) on home turf, the Ticats were quietly plotting a dramatic turnover of their football operations.

That brings us to Friday night's renewal of southern Ontario's oldest sports rivalry. Henry Burris and Ray, who were once the centrepieces of the other great provincial rivalry — Ray in Edmonton, Burris in Calgary — have a year under their belts in their new eastern digs and that alone should allow both quarterbacks to be effective from the opening snap. With rebuilt defences for both teams, this could turn into a high-scoring affair, although neither head coach thinks it will because of the defensive co-ordinators involved.

Kent Austin, who used to coach with the Argos, now leads the Cats and Orlondo Steinauer, who used to coach with the Argos, leads his defence. Both are considered innovative, new-world minds in their areas of expertise and they're facing a similar pair in Argos head coach Scott Milanovich and defensive co-ordinator Chris Jones.

Needing to rebuild last year, both teams started at quarterback and coach and worked outward from there. But the Argos made much more perceptive choices in their coaching staff and the horrified Cats had to renege on theirs. That put the Argos at least a year ahead in reconstruction and, since they won the Grey Cup, too, maybe it was actually a couple of years.

Typically CFL, it's already reconstruction time again for both teams and they'll be holding a mirror up to each other Friday night. The initial going, at least, won't be pleasant for the Cats and for the busloads of fans who are expected to make the trip east. The Argos will raise their Grey Cup banner before the game and, while they would have done that on opening night regardless of the opponent, the little city with a chip on its shoulder can, and will, interpret that as rubbing it in.

This is the first of three meetings between the Big Smoke and the Real Smoke but none will be at Ivor Wynne, nor on Labour Day.

"I hate it that there's no Labour Day game," said Argos special-teams captain Jeff Johnson, who began his pro career in Hamilton. "It hurts what we've been building all these years."

Speaking of building, where the Ticats are way ahead of their rivals is in obtaining a new stadium. They will be back on the site of Ivor Wynne, Civic Stadium and the Fields at Scott Park in just over a year. In about three years, the Blue Jays will install natural grass at Rogers Centre, and the Argos will be tossed out of there for good. They failed at getting Varsity Stadium, York University is now out and plans to build a highly visible practice facility in Oakville fell through in the off-season. The federal parklands at Downsview (once the preferred site for SkyDome) are a target, but time is not a friend here, nor is financing.

And, while the Cats are facing a season on the road, the Argos are facing a season at home with a far wonkier schedule. They have two home games on Tuesday nights, are away from Rogers Centre for four consecutive weeks in September and host only one game all season on a Saturday or Sunday. That's not exactly textbook maximization of a Grey Cup victory.

"We've always had a lot of setbacks," says Johnson, an Argo for a dozen years, while adding a rider. "But the situation can look unstable from the outside, but inside, if you have the right people, it can be very stable."

Both teams strongly believe they have the right people to overcome their individual franchise problems, and those facing southern Ontario. And maybe they do. But, until they demonstrate it, the franchise with the larger and more long-term problems has been the one that has handled them when and where it has mattered most … on the field, in the most meaningful games against their oldest opponent.

XXX

Three Things to Watch

1. The Kack attack

The Ticats have shifted veteran linebackers Jamall Johnson and Markeith Knowlton to new positions and both are somewhat undersized for their new roles (Johnson in the middle, Knowlton on the weak side). The Argos may look to test the Ticats' stoutness against the run game with running back Chad Kackert.

2. Second-guessing the secondary

The Argos have four new starters in their defensive backfield and halfbacks Jalil Carter (four games) and Antareis Bryan (rookie) are inexperienced at a tough position to learn. Safety Matt Black gets his first full-time starting gig after five seasons with Toronto. Look for the Ticats to attack the middle of the field with receivers Andy Fantuz and Sam Giguère.

3. Trench warfare

The Ticats' first-unit offensive line gave up two sacks in the pre-season game against a troupe of Winnipeg Blue Bomber nobodies and will need to offer quarterback Henry Burris better protection. Argonaut defensive tackle Khalif Mitchell can be a handful in the middle and will be a stiff test for veteran centre Marwan Hage as he comes back from two injury-riddled seasons.

Key matchup

Toronto quarterback No. 15 Ricky Ray vs. Hamilton safety No. 14 James Patrick

Patrick was brought in to be a veteran presence and calming influence in a secondary that was simply awful last season. He's also got a penchant for big plays with 18 interceptions and five fumble recoveries in five career CFL seasons. If Patrick can get the secondary organized, that will go a long way to slowing down — not stopping — Ray, who remains one of the league's best pivots and was instrumental in the Argos' Grey Cup win last year.

Quotes

"Certainly, you're going to hear some of the clichés, but it's true, we can't turn the football over. They've got some really good skill players and I don't know how much we can bottle their guys up but we certainly need to limit their damage. We can't give up field position and we have to protect the quarterback. If they feel you can't protect, they're going to keep pouring it on ... and, if you don't get pressure on Ricky Ray, you're in for a pretty long day." – Ticats coach Kent Austin on what his team needs to do to win the football game.

"I think we might have more talent but everybody's got enough talent in this league to win. It's the preparation, it's the unity, it locker-room. Guys that are talented don't always show up when the ball's kicked off." – Argos coach Scott Milanovich comparing his 2013 squad to the Grey Cup winning one from a year ago.

"In this league, sometimes you can have a subpar record and you're only a couple of pieces of the puzzle away from being very successful. And how many times have you seen worst to first in one year in this league? Last year, we were six and 12, and that's who we were. So, for Kent to come in and bring in some people who have been successful here and have gone through that kind of thing, I think that's really positive." – Ticat coach and kicking great Paul Osbaldiston.

By the numbers

1-8: The Ticats' record on the road in 2012. Something that will definitely have to change if Hamilton is to have much hope of improving on last season's dismal 6-12 record. On the up side: Hamilton is an even 4-4 since 2009 at the Rogers Centre.

2004: The last time the Ticats won their season opener, a streak of eight consecutive week-one defeats. Hamilton last opened against Toronto in 2009, losing 30-17 to the Bart Andrus-led Argos. That game also featured the infamous Michael Jackson tribute from then-Argonaut receiver Arland Bruce.

2.2: Average years of CFL experience on the Ticats roster, the lowest in the league. Hamilton begins the year with 20 first-year players on its roster after starting with 18 last season.