It feels like Alex Hale is nearing the end of the line with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage of things, internally, the confidence is likely shot here,\u201d SportsCage regular Arash Madani said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m saying it\u2019s on to the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hale was booed by the home fans in Regina after missing his second field goal in the third quarter of Sunday\u2019s 32-26 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n
The misses came from 46 and 47 yards. That dropped him to 50 percent \u2013 6 of 12 \u2013 on kicks of 40 yards or longer. Hale has made 75 percent of his field-goal attempts this season.<\/p>\n
Through 12 games, two-thirds of the season, the numbers just aren\u2019t good enough for the CFL rookie from Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey gave Hale a chance. It hasn\u2019t worked out,\u201d Madani said. \u201cAt some point, as a coaching staff, you need to have confidence in somebody because now we\u2019re post Labour Day. As my pal (former Toronto Blue Jays manager) John Gibbons would say, \u2018It\u2019s nut-cutting time.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201c(Riders coach) Corey Mace has to know (that) if we\u2019re 45 to 52 (yards), we\u2019re going to have a real good shot of nailing this. If it\u2019s 35 to 45, it better be automatic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Riders signed kicker Dawson Hodge last month and Mace seemed close to handing over the kicking duties shortly thereafter. He never got to the point of taking Hale out of the lineup.<\/p>\n
Riders GM Jeremy O\u2019Day and his front office must start considering other options, Madani said. The problem, he added, is there aren\u2019t many established kickers out there right now.<\/p>\n
The one possibility is signing Brady Lidster, who was released by the Toronto Argonauts last week after Lirim Hajrullahu was set to return from a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n
Lidster, 21, of St. Thomas, Ont., made 15 of 21 field goals (71.4 per cent) he attempted over five games with Toronto and went 8-for-12 on converts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere you have a young Canadian kid, who\u2019s kicked in (adverse) conditions before and he\u2019s kicked at Mosaic before,\u201d Madani said. \u201cLet\u2019s remember earlier this season, from outside of 50 yards, Brady Lidster, no problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn really bad conditions, as a rookie, he\u2019s gone and nailed 45-plus-yard field goals. He\u2019s gotten a taste of the CFL. It doesn\u2019t cost you much to bring him in and put him on the practice roster, see what you have.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leash needs to be short with whoever the Riders use for their next game, and onward from there, Madani said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing with the kicking is it\u2019s not like you\u2019re going to bring three or four guys in and have a long audition with them,\u201d he said. \u201cYour guy either does or he doesn\u2019t (make kicks). That\u2019s it. It\u2019s good or it\u2019s no good.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s a couple that are going to be no good and you have no real track record, it\u2019s on to the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hale attempted just one more kick after his second missed field goal on Sunday, a successful point after on Tommy Stevens\u2019 first touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
The Riders then took a seven-point lead with just over three minutes to play in regulation when Stevens found the end zone for a second time. Mace opted to try a two-point conversion to up the lead to nine points, two possessions, but the Riders wouldn\u2019t capitalize.<\/p>\n
Madani and host Barney Shynkaruk were on opposite sides of the coin on that decision.<\/p>\n
Watch the full conversation below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It feels like Alex Hale is nearing the end of the line with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. \u201cAt this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[3878,49,48,521,522,520,3290,4398,27684,27683,1893,4401,27682,4400,4399,82],"class_list":["post-889248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-agriculture","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-contests","tag-country-music","tag-gx94","tag-manitoba-news","tag-radio","tag-rider-radio","tag-saskatchewan-news","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889248","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=889248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}