DAVID ALTER
Special To Argonauts.ca
David Alter is a reporter and sportscaster for Toronto’s Sports Radio THE FAN 590. David covers the Argos and has covered football at every level dating back to 2003.
_________________________________________
After a couple of days off and some time to reflect on a third consecutive loss, the Boatmen had three new but familiar faces show up at practice.
Ricky Foley is a new face, but returns home to the Greater Toronto Area after having a change of heart in returning to the B.C. Lions. The defensive end was born and raised in Courtice, Ontario (abour an hour east of Toronto) and played his C.I.S. ball at York University.
CLICK HERE to watch video.
Kicker Justin Medlock and defensive tackle Walter Curry met with members of the media this week upon returning to the Boatmen.
CLICK HERE to watch video.
It was a pretty wild 24 hours for Foley who had agreed to terms with the Lions. But like anyone in life, family plays a large role when it comes to career decisions. Once he told them of his decision, he had a change of heart. “There’s a lot of teary eyes there,” said Foley after finishing his practice in Double Blue wearing number 9. “Finally, after four years they could come see all of my games. My parents really don’t like flying. Once I saw their reaction (to my initial decision to go to B.C.) I was like man, I can’t do this.”
Foley was the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian last year where he led the league in sacks. While the Argos defence has been strong, they are last when it comes to recording sacks and Foley should be able to help in that department. With Foley being Canadian, he should be able to help when it comes to some flexibility in the ratio. Putting Foley in on the line could help when it comes to filling out the designation left by Adriano Belli who has missed several weeks due to injury. It could also allow for an import to fill another spot, which brings us to our next new face at practice…K/P Justin Medlock.
Medlock was a bright spot in what was otherwise a season to forget last year, going 40 of 46 in his field goals. It resulted in the second-best field goal accuracy in the league. The timing never worked out when it came to Medlock attempting to rejoin the club during training camp. By the time the UCLA product was a free agent, the Argos were several weeks into the season. Rookie kicker Grant Shaw was doing an admirable job, to that point, and there wasn’t space for the import lefty kicker.
Fast forward to today. Medlock will immediately replace Shaw as the team’s field goal kicker. Shaw will remain on the team in a backup linebacker role after showing potential and the team will continue to work on him to try to get him a little more consistent at the kicking game.
DT Walter Curry rejoins the Argonauts and could serve as a starter, but would likely be around as a depth player, at least for the time being. All three moves point to a message from Head Coach Jim Barker that the Argos are now in the hunt to compete, and any notion of a rebuild is completely over and done with.
When he first arrived, Barker didn’t want to place any expectations on his team and wanted to focus on building the talent one week at a time. The Argos’ biggest need to address certainly isn’t their defensive line, but Barker saw an opportunity to make his already strong defence even stronger, so getting players like Foley and Curry will certainly help down the stretch.
The Boatmen could have allowed Shaw more playing time with the hope of his accuracy improving. If the Argos were 2-8 through ten weeks and not 5-and-5, that could have been the case. But competing for a chance to host a playoff game means the focus is on competing, and not rebuilding. So when a more accurate kicker is available, a contending team makes that move.
The attitude now is the team is good enough to win now, and Barker is ensuring he has all the tools necessary to do just that.