Encouraged by what he had seen during training camp, Alouettes general manager Danny Maciocia took a piece of paper and wrote down 11-7.
“I knew we could win 10 or 11 games, I wrote 11-7, but I kept it to myself,” Maciocia revealed on Tuesday during training with the Montreal club, while hearing his bold prediction is more of a coincidence.
If he kept the record he dreamed of for the 2023 season, it’s because Maciocia probably didn’t want to come across as crazy. In fact, many Canadian Football League experts expected the Alouettes to finish behind or even in last place in the round.
• Also read: May the “Force” be with the Alouettes!
• Also read: 25 notes in the notebook before the Eastern semifinals
“I understand why we were placed last because with complete transparency, there was a moment in January where I even wondered if the Canadian League would be eight or nine teams in 2023,” Maciocia recalls .
The sale of the team to businessman Pierre Karl Péladeau in March changed the situation.
During training camp, Maciocia also noticed some positive elements.
“During training camp, I started to believe it a little bit when I saw the interaction between the coaches and with the players,” the GM said. I felt like we had something interesting and that we would have a competitive team.”
“We want to win!”
Despite that 11-7 regular season record, Maciocia isn’t satisfied. He’s obviously dreaming of the Gray Cup, but especially of a win in the Eastern semifinals against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats this Saturday in Montreal.
“My family often reminds me that they criticize me for never being satisfied in life,” he confided with a smile. I regularly say that we are never there… We have a game this weekend and we want to win! We didn’t put in all this work and all these sacrifices to be happy with an 11-7 regular season record.
Maybe Maciocia should have written “Coupe Gray” on his note…