2004 Season - Expo Game at BC Place August

Cougars ROCK BC Place

The drama, the tension, the buzz. Appropriate words to describe the feeling as 20+ Cougar players, umpires, announcers and assistants marched onto the floor of BC Place for 10 of the most glorious minutes in the short history of the Cougars.

Before the BC Lions game had even started, most of the boys had already decended down to field level to start getting ready for the big clash and to soak up a bit of the pre-game atmosphere. The BC Lion cheerleaders – the FeLions, who just happened to walk by were treated with a guard of honour by the boys as they waited on the ground.

As half time approached in the BC Lions/Montreal Alouettes game, the boys were clearly getting nervously excited about the thought of running out in front of 23,788 screaming fans. Each player seemed to be going through his mind imagining greatness and getting a huge cheer. Some were visualising snagging a miraculous goal, others taking a huge hanger, and some even laying a bone crushing hip and shoulder (most likely on Cashie). No doubt one player was probably imaging the crowd chanting “Pretty Boy, Pretty Boy, Pretty Boy…..”


Team Photo Post Game

So with the boys donning their tightest pair of footy shorts, the crowd came alive as the boys strode out onto the field. Surely for the last hour they had just been going through the motions of watching the first two quarters of the BC Lions game and were just waiting in anticipation for the highlight of their night.

Like a well oiled machine, in about 30 seconds flat the posts were set up, the boys were in their positions, and up went the first bounce….

In a game of only 10 minutes, you wouldn’t think there could be that many highlights, well when a game is played at such high intensity, you’d be surprised….

1. More than one of the boys looking up at the big screen during the pre-game line up to check themselves out on the Jumbotron.
2. Matty Werner’s thumping hip and shoulder on Special K that was duely rewarded with a “OOOOOOooooo” from the crowd.
3. Goalsneak Jase ignoring the pleading of teammate – NoLongerdue, on a huge lead…to instead set the GlamourBoy up who proceeded to take a mini hanger over poor Stu. Glamour then played on, took two bounces and proceeded to send his kick straight out of bounds on the full.
4. In the same passage of play, NoLongdue tripping over his own two feet and falling over while chasing the Glamour. A trip that was caught nicely on videotape.
5. To no surprise, Cashie delivering a very late hit on Ash to incite a bit of crowd support. The subsequent mock fight continued to work the crowd.
6. Pretty Boy Farr thumping one of his two goals up into above Row 34 of the stands.
7. Goalsneak Jase’s two nice leading marks were great, but his atttempted kick over the head from about a 89 degree angle was special. Pity it went straight out on the full.
8. Robbo taking a mark all alone about 20 metres out and instead of turning around and kicking a goal, got stage fright in front of the big crowd. It was only as Ash was hurtling in at about a 100 miles an hour that Robbo got the sense to kick the thing.
9. Happy Freeman showing the crowd the finer points of the no look handball.
10. Pete Taylor attempting to launch every kick from full back about 70 metres with thumping torp’s.
11. Coops and Ash swooping all over the ground to gather plenty of stats.
12. Klumpy and Teddy running straight lines and hitting the ball constantly at speed.
13. Slim and Mick playing up the goal umping while Arnie was decked out to perfection as the field ump.

And lastly…

14. Campo finally kicking one for the Eagles as the CFL players were already coming onto the ground and most of the boys had already stopped playing. Don’t worry Campo, we’ll still count it !!

As quick as it began the boys were back in the changerooms, fired up after such a succssful demo and quickly reliving every second of glory from such a fine display of footy…..


A sensational mark deep in the Back Pocket electrifies the crowd