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Andrew Hopkins leads Lions into battle again this Sunday. (Gazette photo)

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Politics snuff out Lions' bid for provincial football crown

posted by jmeagher at 15h09

Andrew Hopkins leads Lions into battle again this Sunday. (Gazette photo)

The North Shore Lions are considered the benchmark of success in Quebec minor football.


Always have been, by friend and foe alike.


Since their inception in 1967, the Lions have steamrolled their way to an amazing 30 provincial championships in 40 years.


That kind of perennial domination on the gridiron, like the New York Yankees in baseball, has made them a few enemies along the way.


This season, the undefeated Lions were hoping to nail down their fifth consecutive provincial championship, but a running feud between Football Quebec and the Quebec Bantam Football League means the QBFL did not compete for the provincial crown.


Instead, the provincial title was handed over to the Metro League champion La Prairie Diablos, who defeated the Lanaudière Rhinos 34-17 in the Football Quebec-sanctioned Ballon d’Argent final on Sunday.


That means the undefeated Lions will have to suffice with an appearance in the QBFL championship game, which takes place this Sunday at noon in St. Léonard against the hometown Cougars.


As Lions head coach Jason Jourdenais pointed out this week, what is a provincial championship without the defending champion Lions competing in it?

He’s right. It’s time for Football Quebec, as the sports governing body in this province, to sit down and work with the rival leagues to find a workable solution. If the main sticking point remains the disparities in fees paid to Football Quebec between community and scholastic football, then work out a compromise that will put the game back on solid footing.

As it stands now, the only people losing out are the kids who look forward all year to playing in the championship game.

Once again, too many adults have apparently forgotten the No. 1 rule of amateur sports: The game belongs to the kids!

As for football bragging rites, until the 12-0 Lions are dethroned on the field, they will remain defending provincial champs.

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To Patrick

Submitted by reader1 on Sat, 11/15/2008 - 17:14.
So I guess you are a better journalist then Mr. Meagher. It would appear you want to attack his credibility. You are obviously yet another hater of the NSL. Did you lose against them? Where you cut from the team as a kid? Did your kids not make the team? Do you think they have an unfair advantage? It’s so typical that people like you come crawling out from under your rock to cry every time you don’t agree with something. You can’t deny the success of the Lions and god forbid if someone tries to celebrate it. If you weren’t so biased and didn’t hate the Lions so much you would clearly understand that the Lions represent the QBFL and that’s why he said we would remain defending provincial champions as no ‘real’ provincial has been played. What’s wrong with believing you deserve a spot in the final? You think the 50 players on the Lions don’t make endless sacrifices to be the best they can be. It’s not their history of winning that rewards them entitlement its their shear determination to be the best they can be. I would hope every team would want that. What have the Lions taken for grated? They work hard every season and set goals. You try to associate amateur football to boxing, for what?? Every sport has a rulebook and a governing body. So go and educate yourself about the rules for football Quebec as they clearly state a provincial must encompass all leagues. So how do you sanction a provincial final without including all members of AAA football? YOU CAN’T. And no one forfeited or refused anything and if you were privy to accurate information you wouldn’t be on here trying to pretend to be knowledgeable. If football Quebec was a responsible organization they would have made arrangements for proper playoffs. But the powers that be continue to act as a dictatorship hence the title of this blog. Don’t be so fast to think you know everything because there is always someone more informed then you. In 2003 the Lions lost and you cling to that small detail because it’s all you got. They haven’t lost since and you don’t want to even credit them with their results. Losers associate with losing, loser.
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NSLIONS

Submitted by St-Patrick on Fri, 11/14/2008 - 23:30.
No, nslions, I am not suggesting that you are impersonating a Montreal Gazette reporter. I am simply saying that you wrote the article, sent it in to Mr. Meagher, and that he posted it here without proof reading it or checking the style or the tone of the article. I know that when you send him the articles about your games which appear in the West Island section of the Montreal Gazette at least he edits the reports and gives them a more neutral tone. In this case, however, he did not bother doing his job, maybe because the West Island Gazette is still just an obscure website that not many people know about, and posted whatever you fed him. He stopped being a journalist for a few moments and became a North Shore cheerleader. Come on, even the headline is wrong. It's incorrect to say "Politics snuffs out...". The correct grammar is to say "Politics snuff out...". The whole world is not out to get the Lions, the whole world simply wants fair treatment for everyone.
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NSLIONS

Submitted by nslions on Sat, 11/15/2008 - 00:00.
I hate to tell you St. Patrick but you are completely wrong about this article. Yes, Mr. Meagher rewrites the info we send him about our games and that's totally fine. He absolutely should give the info he prints a neutral tone and given that he is limited to the amount of space he has to work with, it's no wonder that it doesn't get edited even more. However, as for this particular article, it gives me great pleasure to tell you that this was completely unsolicited by us. We had absolutely nothing to do with it. Mr. Meagher wrote this article completely of his own initiative and quite frankly, it was very much a surprise to us when we saw it appear. If you have issues with his writing style or his use of grammar you should take it up with him, but please don't accuse us of trying to spread so-called propaganda about our team through his on-line blog. We get enough false accusations about us as it is. We really don't need any more.
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St. Patrick

Submitted by nslions on Fri, 11/14/2008 - 16:26.
Wow, St. Patrick, there are a lot of jealous and misinformed people out there who don't understand our program and take pleasure in making unfounded accusations just to try and belittle our organization, but you take the cake. To go so far as to accuse us of impersonating a respected reporter in the very newspaper he works for is pretty weak. I sincerely hope that Mr. Meagher sees this and responds appropriately.
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Well Done

Submitted by catseye1 on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 23:23.
How can the Metro Division consider themselves Provincial Champions when they have never faired well in any final versus a QBFL team? I guess this is the only way they will ever win one. Anyone who truly knows football at this level knows that they will never be considered true champions after their 51-7 thrashing by the Lions at last seasons big game.
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Ballon d'Argent

Submitted by St-Patrick on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 15:33.
There is no way that John Meagher from the Montreal Gazette wrote this article. The real John Meagher would never write something like this: "That means the undefeated Lions will have to suffice with an appearance in the QBFL championship game". He uses much better grammar. The real John Meagher would write a balanced, well researched and impartial article and not a boastful exposé of the North Shore Lions. Writing a statement like "...what is a provincial championship without the defending champion Lions competing in it?" shows how much the NSL feel entitled to getting a spot in a championship game. It is not written anywhere that a defending champion automatically gets a place in the finals. It always has to be earned. The Lions have taken it for granted that they are always in the finals. May I remind them about what happened in 2003? This was definitely written by a NSL coach and submitted under John Meagher's name. And the last line: "As for football bragging rites, until the 12-0 Lions are dethroned on the field, they will remain defending provincial champs." means that the Lions and the QBFL obviously do not understand that they forfeited their claim to a championship when when they refused to accept the Football Quebec schedule for playoffs. When a reigning boxing champion refuses to get in a rink with a challenger he automatically loses the title. The same applies in football. QBFL had a choice: they could have allowed their teams to play for the Ballon d'Argent and then worked out their differences with Football Quebec in the off-season but they opted to hold the young football players hostage to satisfy their own egos. Shame on them! Also, shame on the Montreal Gazette for allowing its website to be used for this kind of biased propaganda.
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