Don Landry
CFL.ca
After spending so much time kicking in prairie winds, Winnipeg’s Justin Palardy is ready for a walk in the park. Or, kick in the park, I guess. Because B.C. Place is a veritable kicker’s paradise.
“It’s pretty simple to kick in here,” said Palardy after this morning’s workout in the fairly still air of the big bubble.
There are occasional breezes from the ventilation system, but nothing, of course, like the howling winds that can often punch through Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg.
It’s precisely those conditions that may give Palardy a personal edge on Sunday afternoon by simplifying things.
“It’s funny I was just thinking that I’m so used to playing the wind. Putting the ball three or four feet outside the right upright and letting it curl back in because the wind (in Winnipeg) is that strong. In here it’s kind of a treat. Just keep it straight.”
He’s appreciative of the conditions he’ll be kicking in during the Grey Cup game. The only thing that Palardy doesn’t much care for, is that the ball doesn’t carry as far as it might elsewhere.
“I’m not going to be kicking 65 yard field goals in here. You’d be surprised how far the ball doesn’t travel in a dome.”
Makes sense though. The stadium is at sea level. If kickers gain an advantage in the rarefied air of, say, a Denver, you’d expect the exact opposite to be true at the bottom of the mountains. Having said that, Palardy is confident that he’ll be able to split the uprights from midfield, if it comes to it (his longest this season came from 49 yards).
He’s shown he has a strong leg, even if his accuracy may have been buffeted by those often windy Winnipeg conditions. Palardy finished the season at 76.9%, almost 20 percentage points back of B.C’s Paul McCallum.
Because of that, Palardy may spend this week at least partially, and perhaps unfairly, in the shadow of his Lions’ counterpart. McCallum rewrote the CFL record book this year, finishing the season at 94.3% in field goal accuracy and is the West nominee for Special Teams Player Of The Year. However, that praise and attention heaped on the CFL’s top place kicker is none of Palardy’s concern.
“No, I don’t worry about that stuff. I mean, Paul had a great year. He’s a great guy who deserves everything he’s getting. He’s worked his butt off for how ever many years he’s been in the league.”
As long as Palardy sees the ball on the tee at precisely the right moment, he doesn’t foresee any troubles on Sunday. Even if he’s looking square at the laces as he swings his leg through.
“Timing is everything. You want to keep the same fluid motion, the same hold… any break in that can really throw you off.”
We’ve always been told that “laces out” is a must for kickers, haven’t we? But, according to Palardy (and seconded by Toronto’s Noel Prefontaine,
incidentally) you can still kick a ball with great accuracy, if the laces are facing you.
“Kicking the laces… it sucks, but you can still kick it 45 yards. I’ve kicked the laces once or twice in the last couple of weeks (and made them both). They were short, but… I mean, if you’ve gotta kick the laces, you’ve gotta kick the laces. It hurts the foot a bit….”
I’ll bet it does. Especially if it’s minus 15, not including the chill factor generated by that Manitoba wind.
THE EXTRA POINT
A little humour, perhaps intended, perhaps not, at this morning’s Coaches’ media conference.
Longtime Edmonton Sun scribe Terry Jones finished the conference with the “Jim Shaky Hunt memorial question.” It was Shaky, the beloved veteran reporter who first (and often after that) asked the competing Grey Cup coaches if they’d allow their players to have sex in the days and nights leading up to the game.
Said Jones: “What is your position on sex with your players before the game?”
Bomber coach Paul LaPolice answered the question thoughtfully, saying he’d anticipated it. Lions’ head coach Wally Buono followed by saying Jones might want to rephrase the question. To him it sounded like Jones was asking LaPolice, well, something a little different than may have been intended.
Buono then gave his answer to the question, saying it was of little consequence.
“What matters is whether you line up and play for three and a half hours.”
Uh, you’re talking about the game, right coach?
