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Published Oct 28, 2025  • 4 minute read
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Bombers’ Winnipeg-born quarterback Brady Oliveira wants to win the Grey Cup at home this year. Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian PressArticle content
Reaching a Grey Cup game in your home city is difficult – over the last 11 years, just one team has pulled it off.
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For the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, that’s the carrot dangling down the CFL playoff road.
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Some don’t even want to look at it.
Brady Oliveira can almost taste it.
“Nothing more that I want,” the Winnipeg-born running back was saying as he faced a media scrum on his home field on Tuesday. “Then to come back here, play in my back yard with all my boys, all my teammates – we all want that. We want to be back here for the big game at the end of the year.
“We understand it’s going to take a lot.”
For starters, it’ll take a win in Montreal on Saturday against a rejuvenated Alouettes squad that won its last five meaningful games of the regular season.
If they can pull that off, it’s on to Hamilton and what they used to call Tim Hortons Field for the East final.
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It’s a double-double a dozen teams have tried to complete and failed since the crossover playoff spot was deep-fried into the CFL rules, some 30 years ago.
The chance to make history seems to entice Oliveira as much as the chance to lower his shoulder into a would-be tackler.
“For me it doesn’t matter if you’re in the West or the East,” he said. “The full crossover thing is cool, though. I’ve heard no other team has made it out to a Grey Cup. I find that very intriguing and very motivating for us to be the first. So why not us?”
It’s easy to think of several reasons, actually.
They have the league’s least productive passing attack, for one. Throwing that against the CFL’s stingiest pass defence and top overall defence sounds like a recipe for aerial disaster.
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Having one of the loop’s most turnover-prone offences is another red flag in any game, never mind a win-or-go-home affair.
There’s also Winnipeg’s rookie offensive coordinator, Jason Hogan, who at times appears to have bitten off more than he can chew.
Play-calling against Montreal defensive mastermind Noel Thorpe’s unit will be critical.
After a week of rest, Oliveira is ready to hear his number called over and over again. He knows what can happen with the ground game at this time of year.
“You know I’m going to say it’s extremely important,” he said. “Especially a run game that is hard-nosed, downhill, going to hit you in the mouth-type running the football. That really does something to an offence.
“Again, though, we’re going to have to find maybe some different ways to win games throughout this stretch of going in the East and trying to make it back home.”
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The 28-year-old says making it “back home” would be a reward to the Winnipeg fans who’ve filled the joint all season and made the Bombers the runaway leaders in attendance.
“Our fan base deserves it,” he said. “You look at what they did for us this year. They’ve been a vital part of us having success here.”
Not as vital a part as taking care of the football. When the Bombers turn it over more than their opponent, they’re 1-7.
The man most responsible for the ball will experience a first on Saturday, despite his lengthy resume.
“I don’t think I’ve ever played a playoff game in Montreal,” Zach Collaros said, calling it a very hard place to play. “So it’s a really exciting challenge.”
The quarterback hasn’t been the underdog for a while, either. His team has reached the last four Grey Cups through the front door: first place in the West.
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Whether or not that’s a door to extra motivation depends on the player.
“It can maybe also take the pressure off you if you’re somebody who gets bogged down by that kind of stuff,” Collaros said. “It’s a different feel, for sure.”
It would have felt similar in 2019, when Collaros led the Bombers to their first of back-to-back championships from third place, winning two road games to get there.
For some reason, nobody’s been able to do that while crossing over to the East.
Like Oliveira, that seems to have caught Collaros’s attention.
“Yeah, pretty cool,” he said. “I’m sure, statistically, there’s some kind of stat that (shows) when teams go east from the west and vice versa it’s tougher to win. Luckily, we’re right in the middle.
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“So maybe that’ll play to our advantage.”
Maybe. It is the Bombers’ first crack at it.
The previous 12 tries were by B.C. (five), Edmonton (four) and Saskatchewan (three).
Mike O’Shea has been around the CFL for more than 30 years, but has no answer for why it’s so hard to do.
“I don’t know that it is,” the head coach said. “I’ve never been a part of a crossover.”
He has experience with the other part of this equation, though: he was an Argonauts assistant coach in 2012, when they reached, and won, their home Grey Cup – one of just four teams to pull that off over the last 45 years.
One game at a time, says the coach.
“They’re all smart, they know hosting the Grey Cup is very important to the city and the province and the fan base,” O’Shea said. “The core veterans wouldn’t let anybody lose sight or mix up their message.”
Meanwhile, the carrot dangles in the distance.
paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
X: @friesensunmedia
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