Jack Todd: I used to be improper about Danny Maciocia

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Seems Alouettes GM Danny Maciocia is as much as the job in spite of everything.

I used to be improper. I didn’t assume Maciocia was the person to rebuild the Alouettes. I didn’t assume the firings of Khari Jones and Barron Miles had been both truthful or justified. I nonetheless don’t, however I underestimated Maciocia’s means to place collectively a aggressive crew and a strong teaching employees.

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Following Friday’s 41-12 thumping of a middle-of-the-pack Saskatchewan Roughriders crew, it’s clear after eight video games that Maciocia’s Alouettes are no less than aggressive, with gusts to contending for a Gray Cup. It’s not that they received in opposition to the Riders, and even that they received large — however reasonably that they received whereas lacking three key offensive cogs: working again William Stanback, receiver Kaion Julien-Grant and quarterback Cody Fajardo.

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Thoughts you, the Riders, already lacking their starter in former Alouette Trevor Harris, had been all the way down to their third-string QB after Mason Advantageous went down. However as my mentor Zeke Herbowsky identified, few skilled soccer groups win with their backup quarterback. The Als didn’t simply win with Caleb Evans calling the indicators, they rolled.

The phrase for the Alouettes at this level is “strong.” Stable crew, strong teaching. Newly acquired Shawn Lemon has put beast mode within the move rush, the offensive line is starting to carry the road and the receiving crew is proving that there’s certainly life after Eugene Lewis.

Given the possession vacuum following the welcome departure of the bombastic Gary Stern, Maciocia had a job to do in changing Harris and Lewis. He did it properly.

Love him or hate him, Pierre-Karl Péladeau is an proprietor who provides the Alouettes clout on this market that they by no means had earlier than, not even when Bob Wetenhall owned the crew.

Péladeau has been a surprisingly low-profile proprietor, as he ought to be. Possession is crucial for any skilled crew however Péladeau can’t win the video games. That’s on Maciocia and head coach Jason Maas and the gamers.

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The schedule will get harder following a recreation in opposition to the Redblacks in Ottawa Saturday, with the Blue Bombers on the street and the Lions at dwelling adopted by a home-and-home in opposition to the East-leading Argos.

If the Als can get a break up out of these video games, they’ll be in place to cruise into the playoffs — a far cry from the place we thought they’d be.

Ladies’s sports activities within the highlight: Late Sunday afternoon, on the finish of a busy sports activities weekend, I discovered myself watching FC Barcelona (as soon as my favorite soccer crew) make its La Liga season debut in a wretched mess of a recreation in opposition to lowly Getafe.

The purple playing cards had been flying, gamers had been diving and writhing left and proper, the referee was surrounded by a hostile posse bent on intimidation each time he made a name — and the ultimate rating was 0-0. After three weeks of the Ladies’s World Cup, watching the boys play soccer was like rec league beginner hour however with much less motion.

We’re, I believe, within the early phases of a change, with ladies’s sports activities within the ascendant. I’ve lengthy since come to want ladies’s tennis to the boys until Carlos Alcaraz is enjoying. After this World Cup, the identical might be true of soccer.

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The crowds, the depth, the variety of aggressive nations, the packed stadiums, the spectacular targets and scorching younger abilities on show in Australia and New Zealand are the markers of a sport reworked. This World Cup is best than the boys’s World Cup performed in Qatar — and never merely as a result of it isn’t being performed in a tyrannical theocracy.

The ladies provide you with full worth. Their recreation isn’t filled with bloated egos {and professional} divers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Jr., placing in time till they’ll promote themselves to the Saudis for a whole bunch of tens of millions of Euros. We’re on the level the place there’s a strong argument that the ladies’s recreation is best, with the mouth-watering semifinals that includes Sweden vs. Spain in Auckland and England vs. Australia in Sydney developing.

Nearer to dwelling, the final act of girls’s tennis was a weather-wrecked mess. It’s a disgrace that Liudmila Samsonova had nothing left by the point it got here to enjoying Jessica Pegula, denying her a sensible shot on the title. Samsonova performed as a result of she had no alternative, nevertheless it’s potential to think about a future during which ladies not have to simply accept such therapy.

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Male athletes have had all of it their manner for a century and extra, however the sports activities world is altering quick. For those who haven’t tuned in already, watch the final 4 video games of the World Cup. You received’t be upset.

Heroes: Jessica Pegula, Liudmila Samsonova, Elena Rybakina, Iga Swiatek, Amanda Ilestedt, Mackenzie Arnold, Cortnee Vine, Alessia Russo, Salma Paralluelo, Lilia Vu, Caleb Evans, Austin Mack, Shawn Lemon, Kabion Ento, Walter Fletcher, Wesley Sutton &&&& final however not least, Danny Maciocia.

Zeros: Soccer Canada, Nick Bontis, VAR, Jose Bautista, George Springer, John Schneider, Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins, John Harbaugh, Pat Fitzgerald, Chris Jones, Neymar Jr., Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Lauren James, Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& final however not least, Jeffrey Loria.

Now and perpetually.

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