Wynton McManis<\/a>, who joined the team after helping the Toronto Argonauts win the 111th Grey Cup two seasons ago.<\/p>\nMcManis emphasized the importance of starting fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everybody wants to win as soon as you come out,\u201d said McManis. \u201cYou can have a great off-season and feel good about your team, but it\u2019s always about how you finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat being said, it\u2019s always good to come out and win Week 1 because it lets you know your team is on the right track and that people are bonding and coming together the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philpot also acknowledged Hamilton\u2019s revamped roster heading into the opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Hamilton, it\u2019s an East Division rival and we always seem to be playing each other in the Eastern Semi-Final or the Eastern Final,\u201d said Philpot. \u201cThey\u2019ve obviously added some talent, so it\u2019s a bit of a new-look team, but we like taking down the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. AN EARLY EAST DIVISION MEASURING STICK<\/p>\n
Week 1 games always carry excitement, but opening the season against a division rival adds another layer.<\/p>\n
Receiver Kenny Lawler believes Hamilton will be ready for the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to start with an East Division matchup,\u201d said Lawler. \u201cObviously they beat us last year, but we don\u2019t bring turmoil from last year into a new season. If anything, it\u2019s added fuel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a great team. They went to the Grey Cup last year and won it a couple of years ago, so they\u2019re great competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
With playoff history, divisional stakes and a loud Hamilton crowd expected to set the tone, the 2026 CFL season opener already carries the feel of a post-season game in early June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAMILTON \u2014 The road to the 113th Grey Cup begins with a playoff rematch as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-695411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n