Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
It’s one of the most anticipated games of the CFL season — the annual Labour Day Classic at Mosaic Stadium between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The yearly showdown has a reputation as a game where the teams’ records don’t matter but in 2026, it, along with the rematch between the two in the next game, could go a long way toward determining who hosts a playoff game.
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Saskatchewan comes into the game with a 7-4 record and is sitting in second place in the CFL’s West Division, but the Bombers are right there with a 6-5 mark of their own.
“It’s one of those things where you get to live a dream where you get to play in the big games,” quarterback Trevor Harris said.
“I always tell people when you’re growing up in your backyard, it’s never you’re up by 30 or playing this team or that team. It’s always the big moments and the big games we get to live that. Couldn’t be more excited.”
Offensive lineman Logan Ferland also admits this is a point in the season where you want to start playing your best football ahead of the playoffs.
“We try to treat every game the same but we’d be lying if we said it wasn’t an important game for us,” Ferland said.
The Melfort athlete has been a part of a number of Labour Day Classics and each one continues to be special.
“It’s unmatched the fan base we have so pretty excited,” Ferland said.
It’s also going to be a special game for wide receiver Daniel Wiebe, as the Saskatoon player and former University of Saskatchewan Huskie will start in his first one.
“I’m really excited. There’s no environment quite like it in any other game so I’m looking forward to it for sure,” Wiebe said. “Unimaginable is kind of what I have heard, so I am excited about it.”
The past four Labour Day Classic games have all been close contests decided by four points or less. Three of those games have had two-point conversion attempts late.
“That’s crazy. Hopefully, for fans, I’m sure they would love that — I don’t know. It makes for great entertainment but not so much for the old ticker (heart) on the sideline. I just think it speaks to the good teams, relatively in the last handful of the years out of the West, these two teams have been really good teams,” head coach Corey Mace said.
“I don’t expect that to change.”
Saskatchewan will look to stop a Bombers offence led by the CFL’s leading rusher Brady Oliveira and two-time CFL Most Outstanding Player quarterback Zach Collaros.
“(Zach) brings that veteran leadership role and you can tell he carries his team and a real good arm and a good thought process. It’s always a great competition with him,” halfback DaMarcus Fields said.
“We have to watch Brady Oliveira. He’s doing real good this year as well. That team is well-rounded everywhere. We are going to bring our best and hopefully they will too.”
The Riders are coming in off of a 28-24 win over the Toronto Argonauts to end a two-game losing skid.
In that game, the Riders’ defence surrendered 295 passing yards and three touchdowns to Chad Kelly in the first half. In the second half, Kelly only had 121 yards, with 49 of them coming on the game’s final play and no scores.
So what does the team need to do to make sure they build off that second half?
“Just fine-tuning the details of things that we missed in the first half and then we were able to fix in the second half. It just further proves the point that we can be that type of defence if we just focus and lock in on the details,” Mace said.
“Hopefully guys take heed to that and we can start the game looking a little bit more like we did in the second half.”
Winnipeg is also coming into the game off of a big win — a dominating 44-28 win over the CFL-leading Montreal Alouettes.
But when it comes to the game, Harris believes they just need to focus on themselves.
“It’s not new hat. They are a good football team. They have been for quite a long time and have been the class of the league for quite a while and they have our respect and I’m sure we have theirs. It will be a fun matchup but it’s going to be 60 minutes of violent football and that’s what we look forward to,” Harris said.
Kickoff for the game is set for 5 p.m. The Green Zone pregame show begins at 3 p.m.
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