Ticats travelling road to success

Marwan Hage was looking around a loud, joyous visitors dressing room on Friday night at the Rogers Centre, drinking it all in. 

His Hamilton Tiger-Cats had just wrapped up their second straight playoff spot by pounding the Toronto Argonauts 30-3, putting further back into the memory banks a run of ineptitude that might have brought down many other guys. 

Hage, you see, is the last survivor of a Cats team that went 9-8-1 in his rookie year, then fell straight into the dumper by winning just 15 times over the next four seasons before turning it around in 2009. 

"That’s why I have the biggest smile [here] to be in a playoff spot," said the 6-foot-2 offensive lineman, who weighs in at 291 pounds. "I know what it is to be in a drought. Every win we get means so much, especially because I know how hard we worked to get those wins, and they weren’t coming along [for a long time]." 

They are here now, brought by general manager Bob O’Billovich and a rebuilt organization that turned things around in less than two years.

The man everyone calls Obie took over the Cats before the 2008 season, inheriting a mess many thought the experienced former coach and longtime player personnel man might not be able to clean up before the decade was done.  

And at first it looked like the black and gold was spinning wheels, posting the same 3-15 mark as in 2007. But in 2009, Obie’s second year, Hamilton went 9-9, making the post-season for just the second time in seven campaigns. This time around the club is 8-7 with three games to go.   

Since he got to the Hammer, O’Billovich has replaced all but seven players. 

"It’s been a process," he said, watching the warmup Friday. "And now our talent level is considerably better than it was then, and that’s why we can compete." 

That has meant rebuilding the Canadian content, and recruiting the right Americans to complement them.  

The CFL’s import to non-import ratio has changed a bit over the seasons (currently 19 import, 20 non-import, three quarterbacks and a four-man reserve list), so the idea of how to build has altered to keep up. 

"When I coached, the rule was you started your 10 best Canadians and then you filled in the rest with Americans," O’Billovich said. "Now, it’s that you start your seven best Canadians and fill in the spots with your Americans." 

The lesson is still the same — you have to build around your Canadians. 

Of note, the seven players still left? Six are non-imports.

Hope for Eskimos?

Hamilton’s improvement (and Toronto’s as well, since the Argos were 3-15 last year and already have seven victories in 2010) bodes well for the Edmonton Eskimos, currently suffering through their worst year since before Pierre Trudeau rose to power and almost immediately alienated Alberta. 

This week’s trade that sent veteran kicker Noel Prefontaine to Toronto for a package that included second-year Canadian defensive lineman Etienne Legare and a 2011 second-round non-import draft pick was noticed around the league because other GMs know what Eric Tillman is up to. 

"I think Eric feels their Canadian content isn’t very good right now, so if he can find some way to improve it, either by trade or by acquiring a guy some other way, he will try and improve in that respect," O’Billovich said. 

"Legare is young, he’s a defensive lineman and the second pick overall [in 2009] and his football is still ahead of him." 

So hang in there, Eskimos fans. It might not be that long. 

And there are lessons to learn along the way, Hage said, as the music boom, boom, boomed around him. 

"The hard times made me a stronger player. I don’t regret any of those years," he said, smiling at happy Cat campers going by. "I’ve bled black and gold my entire career — in the hard times and the good times — so every win we get we can kind of forget the past." 

Quicker than some might think.