Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 8/2/24

Episode Date: August 3, 2024

Josh Elliott-Wolfe and Jason Brough dive into the BC Lions dreadful game vs the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Nathan Rourke signs with Atlanta Falcons, will he be back in the CFL anytime soon? The guys discuss if it's time for the Lions to move on from Vernon Adams Jr. if Rourke returns. A breakdown of what to watch for in the Olympics today. In the second segment, Donnovan Bennett weighs in on Canada Basketball, previews Spain matchup, Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett's dominance and Canada's biggest issue. Donnovan also discusses Canada Women's Soccer, previews the matchup vs Germany and how the players are currently feeling.  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da to lock in right now. If I was GM, I'd be paying the man. Help me to my day! I would watch it more if they were shooting like beer cans. My cans! My precious antique cans! Oh, look what you've done to them. We had a bad, bad day at the office, I'll tell you that.

Can I tell you that for free? Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Friday, the final day of Double J on Halford and Brough. No Mike Halford. It's Josh Elliott Wolfe.

Jason Brough is here, though. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? It's been fun. It's been fun. I've enjoyed it. You're doing well.

You're doing a good job. Thank you. I'm just glad I made it here on time every day. That was the goal, and I did it. You did it. I think we've got another week together in three weeks. Yeah. the goal and I did it. You did it. I think we've got another week together in three weeks. Yeah.

Okay. Looking forward to it. Halford is on like a month long vacation. Did he go somewhere? I think he's trying to find himself. Fair enough. He's trying to find himself. Aren't we all?

Aren't we all? Elon is here for Ben. Elon, good morning. Hey, good morning guys. Thank you for having me. Laddie, you're here. Hello, hello. Good morning.

Good morning. Halford and Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today, and you can text in, get your ask us anything's in your what we learns in on the 650-650 Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome.

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Today on the show, we've got three guests. Nick Shook, writer for NFL.com, going to talk about any huge takeaways from the Hall of Fame game last night. If he wants to put any bold takes out, we'll hear him. But also training camps going on around the NFL. All the storylines in the national football league at 7 30 donovan bennett covering the olympics for cbc we're going to talk basketball because canada they take on spain at 8 15 pacific but we'll also get into uh the women's

soccer team as well what's going on there good yeah and uh uh the canada is looking to go three and oh right yes okay you know if they beat spain today they should beat spain based on the point spread which is nine points in favor of canada come on beat those spaniards yeah eight o'clock i just felt like saying yeah i know i i liked the attitude it was good eight o'clock the moge play-by-play voice of the bc. Not a great game for them last night. I would say it was a bad one in Winnipeg last night. We'll get into that. That's what's happening on the show.

Let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that?

You missed that what happened is brought to you by the bc construction safety alliance making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools resources and safety training visit visit bccsa.ca so i just mentioned it the bc lions in action last night they lost 25 to nothing that is difficult to do do you like watching your favorite team punt if so last night was the game for you hope you pvr'd it if you're a big punt guy i'm the big guy uh they had i'm reading the story in the province and uh until midway through the fourth quarter the only lions drive over eight yards was for 22 yards in the second quarter a whole four plays and they had seven two and outs a two and out is worse than a three and out in the nfl because it's like what we just got the

ball back how did you do this we're just gonna kick it right back um vernon adams had a uh nightmare night uh not only did he finish it hurt he had just 74 yards on 8 of 17 passing until he was forced from the game in the fourth quarter. Apparently, he tweaked the same right knee that he hurt last year. We're going to play some audio from head coach Rick Campbell, who is not very thrilled with the performance of the team. And why would you be when you lose to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a team that you could have kicked when they were down. The Bombers have had a tough start to the season.

They had an opportunity to go in there and really show who was in charge of the West, and instead they got shut out 25-0. But I do want to add this before we get to Rick Campbell's comments in a possibly related story Nathan Rourke has signed with Atlanta now a lot of people might be like what Atlanta we knew he had a workout with Atlanta but we never really thought that he would catch on with them because they signed Kirk Cousins and they drafted Michael Penix Jr. It was a whole thing. It was a whole big deal.

People were like, what? You have too many quarterbacks. And then they also have Taylor Haneke. He's the clear fourth guy there in Atlanta. In terms of NFL depth threat, absolutely. Now, they do like Rourke, the Falcons. They actually tried to get him off waivers last season, but New England had priority, and New England got him,

and then Rourke finished the season with the New England Patriots. There's also a possibility, I suppose, that if Nathan Rourke does well enough in the preseason, assuming he gets an opportunity in the preseason, that they could save some money for themselves, the Falcons, by cutting Heineke, right? And then Rourke would be the third quarterback on that team. A discussion I want to have with the listeners today, and we can have it with Moj as well, because Moj has written an article about Nathan Rourke for the Black Press.

If Rourke becomes available, let's say the Falcons decide not to cut Taylor Heineke, and Rourke is cut loose from the Atlanta Falcons. What do you do if you're the BC Lions? Just think about that right now because we're going to play Rick Campbell's audio here, post-game audio from yesterday. And let me know with one of his answers if you think rick campbell is trying to get ahead of a certain discussion in town definitely have to get it further looked at the initial the initial assessment from what they told me it's probably something on the order of weeks not months or longer so that's the good news part of it but it would be irresponsible you to say that's 100%

he needs to get some tests done and all that but not does not look like a season ending or anything like that. Rick four first downs 102 yards of net offense I mean how do you explain just what happened out there? I think we got our butts beat is what I think happened from start to finish. And we could not get anything going. And you don't see that too often in the CFL. So I'll credit them. They had a really good game plan and they played well. And we had a bad, bad day at the office.

I'll tell you that. How much did the Bombers defensive game plan resemble what Calgary threw at you prior to the bye? Yeah, I mean, we, I think the biggest thing, just our initial thing is we weren't productive on first down and then we were getting in second and long and they were dropping a bunch of people into coverage and, you know, we just didn't have anybody open. So the biggest thing is we got to be more productive on first down and give ourselves a chance. Before the injury, V.A. was not having a good night. I don't think he could put it down to the Bombers' offense. He was missing throws that he usually makes.

What was going through his head? What did you talk about at halftime? I don't know. It was just one of those things where he wanted to – I talked to him on the side. If they had scored one more, we were going to take him out of the game, not benching him. I was explaining to him it wasn't about benching him it was about the big picture and keeping him healthy and ironically or not whatever the word is is uh he ends up getting hurt so he's uh he's our guy um really good player he's our mop and uh

look forward to having him back he's our guy really good player and we're looking forward to having him back um by the way the first part of that is when he was just talking about uh Vernon Adams injury that he suffered and he said that um it looks like it's going to be a matter of weeks not months and not season ending not season ending so i you know he can say what he wants about vernon adams being the guy but i i don't think that many bc lines were like 100 sold on vernon adams and i've made the comparison to geno smith in seattle. And it's kind of like, yeah, we see the good parts when they're good. But we also see that this is a guy that you're not 100% sure he can take you to where you want to be. And where do the Lions want to be this season? Well, they want to be in the Grey Cup

because they're hosting the Grey Cup. And I think that adds a wrinkle to it. Because if I'm Amar Dolman, I'm sitting there going, you know, Vernon Adams has had some good games for us. He's had some pretty dreadful ones too, right? It wasn't very good against Calgary. Had a couple interceptions against Calgary. And then there's this bye week where the Lions are supposed to bounce back or get re-energized after losing to Calgary. And they weren't very impressive in that game, too.

They have that bye week, and they come out completely flat, looking completely out of answers on offense. And a lot of it was just Vernon Adams not making the throws like it was I mean I think you watched the first half before you were just like this is not for me and I think a lot of people were what did you see from Vernon Adams uh it was frustrating and like the what I saw was just he didn't feel confident you know and when i have watched vernon adams he has seemed at least confident in the past and in that and the other wrinkle is the the lions did get keon hatcher back so they had um three receivers that should be very good um and it just wasn't working

for the lions when in terms of like when we're talking about this nathan rourke story too it's just like the tantalizing part of all of this is you've seen nathan rourke in bc and you know how good he can be so if he is available i feel like the like rick campbell can say hey vernon adams is our guy we think he's our mlp like he's super important but also nathan rourke, he's super important. But also, Nathan Rourke, if he's available, is just the clear option. Yeah. Well, do you think it is? Because let's say he does become available. What do you do if you're Neil McAvoy, the general manager of the Lions,

or, I mean, this decision probably goes all the way up to ownership. What do you do? Do you say, we're going to try and trade Vernon Adams and get Nathan Rourke back in the door? I think so. Or at the very least, you're like, well, Vernon Adams is injured right now, and Nathan Rourke might be available if he is available at any point in the next few weeks, and you at least, worst case, you have both of them. So we're now cheering against Nathan Rourke to do well with the Atlanta Falcons?

A little bit. It's a very interesting dynamic, isn't it? There was an interesting quote from a few weeks ago when Rourke was at a Lions game in B.C. Place. He was working out in Vancouver with his throwing coach. And he said, I would love to come back and play in this league that I love so much. That wasn't like, I want to do it now. He said, I love playing in front of these fans. I love so much, you know, that wasn't like, I want to do it now. He said, I love playing in front of these fans. I love playing in front of family. And I'd love to

return to an organization that I love that feels like family to me in BC with the Lions. So if it's Nathan Rourke's decision, if he has to come back to the CFL, you put it that way, because he is chasing his NFL dream right now. But if it doesn't work out for him and he finds himself without a team in a few weeks, then it sounds like he would want to be back with the BC Lions, which might just coincide with, what, the return of Vernon Adams to the lineup.

It is quite a conundrum, and I think I don't know if the Lions are even entertaining this, but they must at least be like, okay, let's discuss this privately.

The criticism for V.A. is understandable from last night's terrible offensive game, but he still leads the CFL in passing errors and passing touchdowns. Do you trust him as a quarterback? I don't think we should overreact based on the past couple weeks. Should we welcome Rourke back with open arms? Absolutely

if he chooses to do that. But I do think V.A. is still one of the top three quarterbacks in the CFL. Yeah. But do you trust him to get you to a great cup? It's not the same as work where I'm like, he's on the team. We're going to the great cup. Yeah.

V.A., there's a good chance. Obviously, last night was terrible. We are missing Tawanga Toy. He has those games like that, though. He does. And I also feel bad for him because the offensive line wasn't holding up we have absolutely no run game and obviously those are just excuses but i will say we shouldn't overreact with just a couple games here the other like interesting part of it too though is you're like man we could bring in

york or rourke and also trade Vernon Adams and get something back. And then you think about how good the team could be theoretically in that world. But I don't know. It also has to, Rourke has to be available. So we'll talk to Moj about that at 8 o'clock. And he's written on Nathan Rourke. And he, of course, called the game last night. So he'll have some thoughts on Vernon Adams and how the team looked in Winnipeg

Summer McIntosh won another gold yesterday good for her she won the women's 200 meter butterfly in an Olympic record time of two minutes 3.03 seconds I thought it was a slow it's a slow pool she's still doing that She's setting Olympic records. It wasn't a walk in the park for her or a swim in the park. If you're swimming in the park, I don't know where you swim in the park. You shouldn't.

Regan Smith did push her. But this event. And see, here's the quote. The 200 fly. That's her quote, right? They call it the fly. We were talking to Ben Steiner yesterday. He said the fly.

And I was like, right. Yeah. Swimming people. Yeah. You know, call him the butterfly. Like, of course, it's the fly. Yeah. She said, I would say is one of my favorite races.

And it has been since I was a little kid. The last 50, I was just trying to feed off the crowd as much as possible. I knew it was going to be a fight to the wall. And it was. So congratulations to Summer McIntosh. I'm already looking forward to the next Olympics when we can cheer her on. I don't know when the prime age of swimming is. It seems to be quite early.

It always feels the hour um and i think summer mcintosh is not only going to be challenged to remain elite um she's going to be challenged with all the attention that she's beginning uh and she's going to get when she returns from france she's going to have to go and you know she's going to be invited to a lot of stuff she's going to have a lot of media obligations i'm sure sponsors are going to have to go and, you know, she's going to be invited to a lot of stuff. She's going to have a lot of media obligations. I'm sure sponsors are going to be all over her. So this is going to be the next chapter of her life.

But so far from what we've seen, at least from the very out from the very outside of things, she seems so cool and so calm and so composed and so humble. And it sounds like she's got a great family support around her so i think as a canadian i'm just looking forward to seeing well i'm enjoying what she's doing right now but i'm looking forward to seeing how much better she can be there's not often a time when you hear someone who's not a hockey player in canada described as a generational talent yeah which is wildly impressive to me and uh also yesterday they she competed in the women's 4x200 relay canada came fourth she did her best her teammates let her down yeah yeah she tried to get him back in it it was too late such a life yeah she's like come on please

why aren't you all me uh what's going on today in the olympics that we should be keeping an eye on things that have happened recently so canada did just get another medal they got bronze in the women's gymnastics trampoline event sophia and mathot got that one for canada so they are up to three gold two silver for bronze so far and uh felix oj aliassime he was playing in the semi-finals against carlos alcaraz felix oj aliassime lost 6-1 6-1 he'll play in the bronze medal match. So he's going to play for two bronzes because he's going to play for bronze in singles and also the mixed doubles. Yes. Mixed doubles is today, by the way. I think it should be happening shortly, but the tennis schedule has kind of been weird and unpredictable.

But it should be happening. It's definitely happening today. And I believe it's happening during the show. So we'll see what happens with that um other metal chances today josh liendo in the 50 meter freestyle final that's at 11 30 kylie moss in the 200 meter backstroke final right after that one and uh finley knox in the men's 200 meter individual medley final as well which i believe is around noon ish okay so a lot of swimming and track events got started track events uh damian warner uh track and field decathlon starts or it's already

started um ethan katzberg uh in the hammer throw um so it's a big day for Canada. And of course we've got Canada, Spain in men's basketball. Uh, we can talk to Donovan Bennett about that. Um, when was the last time you were on, here's an ask us anything for you. When was the last time you were on a trampoline? I was trying to, I was thinking about this. I, it might be like a decade. It's been a while. It's been a decade.

And I love trampolines. Well, why don't you get one? I don't you get one i don't know well i live in a one-bedroom apartment so that's my main issue for a trampoline yeah why don't you go to one of those trampoline parks i've thought about it but every time i think have you honestly thought about it i've thought about it well like you go at night and you go with some friends it could be fun right okay but i'm not going alone laddie last time you're on a trampoline uh not that long ago

probably last week last well because i got a two-year-old right and she loves jumping on trampoline so uh how does your body feel when you get on a trampoline not great right where do you feel it uh the legs yeah do you remember when you're a kid and you got on a trampoline there was like there wasn't anything like, oh, this feels right. It just felt right. No, I'd be launching myself off the trampoline. Nothing felt better than being on a trampoline as a child. Elon, last time you were on a trampoline?

Over five years. Over five years. Okay. All right. So I've been, I like you, kids. And I was on a trampoline recently when we were on a trip to Europe in Denmark. There's trampolines everywhere in Denmark.

Litter the streets. Big trampoline country. There aren't, but there was one. And I got on it, and I kind of forgot how to bounce. I was like, how are you, like, what do you. There's a rhythm to it. What do you do, right? And I'm like, I don't think i'm using my calves here i'm just like i was just like trying to like i was barely bouncing and it was really really sad

because there was an old guy on a trampoline he didn't know what to do you don't got your springiness to you anymore yeah like they were broken absolutely no hops and I was on a trampoline. Get your Ask Us Anythings into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. Nick Shook is going to join us for a little nfl talk coming up um and this top 100 players list at nfl.com i don't think they've released the actual top 10 yet no i think it's supposed to come out at five o'clock our time tonight okay so we can we could

talk to him about the the other 90 so is this a list, forgive me because I forgot, is this a list that NFL writers have put together or is this a list that the players have put together? The players put it together. So during the season, last season, there are people from NFL.com, I assume, that go into the dressing rooms and they say, hey, put down your top 20

players in the league and then at the end of the season they have a bunch of samples and they put them all together and points are you a dak prescott guy no were you surprised that he was a top 20 guy yes there were a lot of quarterbacks especially especially. The quarterbacks, to me, felt very wrong. Like Joe Burrow, again, is the one I come back to, and he was ranked 39th, I believe, behind guys like Tua and Jordan Love. Well behind Dak. Well behind Dak.

And to me, that's like, man, I would take Burrow over all of those guys. Like Burrow, to me, is a top 10 player. And he just wasn't so i the quarterbacks to me have been weird and josh allen i think is 12 and i would maybe have him top three in the league yeah in terms of overall talent it's not just a list they they have a tv show on the nfl network yeah so they interview the players what do you like about this guy and they kind of count down from there have you been watching it are you Are you a big NFL guy? Huge NFL guy. This premiered in 2011.

So I probably watched it like five years ago. But now it's kind of, it's a little bogus. Right. What's bogus about it? I mean, like Josh was saying, some of the players are kind of out of order. But it is interesting to see how other players talk about them. I do think some players are just like, hey, this guy's my guy. So I'm going to put him higher.

And I wonder how much that impacts it. But they say they take enough of a sample size from around the league that it kind of like comes out in the wash a little bit like they're not taking like 40 guys from dallas and one from minnesota yeah exactly but it's also like not maybe not the best way to go about it but it's how they go about it i love um talking about dak prescott on the show because there's always like at least one crazed cowboys fan that will text in and be like he's elite he's really good come on like and then you watch him in the playoffs or whatever you're like well there it is there he is there he's just a slightly better kirk to me that's what he is uh it is alfred and brough coming to you live from the kintec studio. On the other side, Nick Shook is going to join us.

We'll get into this list and everything else going on in NFL training camps around the league. It is Halford and Brough on Sportsnet 650. 734 Halford and Brough No Mike Halford It's Josh Elliott-Wolf Here with Jason Brough Coming to you live from the Kintex studio And Halford & Brough is brought to you by The Dilawri family of Honda dealers

Experience the Dilawri difference today Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today And also this hour of Halfpern brough brought to you by bridge brewing meticulously brewed for quality and taste primetime craft beer is full flavor without compromise at a liquor store near you or visit the brewery to see how it's made going to connect in moments with donovan bennett covering the olympics for for CBC Canada, taking on Spain in about 40 minutes from now in their final group stage game of men's basketball. I'm wondering, so if they...

I'm not stressed about this game, which is nice. Because even if they lose, they move on. Right. But they also play tougher competition. If they lose, they'll be second in their group. But, yeah,'m not not really stressed do you think you're just gonna are you not stressed as in you mean you think they're gonna win or just like it doesn't matter what happens uh the latter um i was a little concerned

that this game when i looked at the pool i was like oh they could lose one of those first two games. And that Greece one got interesting at the end. But I just wanted them to get through. Don't get me wrong. I want them to win today and get the best possible seating. But I'm not going to be sitting there watching it like, oh, my God. Come on. Come on. And I actually wonder how the coaching staff will approach it.

You know who we should ask? Donovan Bennett. To the phone lines we go. Don bennett covering the olympics for cbc appreciate you taking the time donovan uh in terms of how canada might approach this final game in the group stage do you think it's a a foot off the gas type thing maybe spread the minutes around a little bit more? Are they still going heavily for this win? Put off the gas, no. Spread the minutes, yes. I don't know if we'll be seeing a long run of Melvin Egyem just because.

But I do think they're going to want to win this game for a couple of reasons. One is, you guys know, in thelympics there's three groups of four and the top two in each group move on and then the two third place finishers best third place finishers also move on so for a couple reasons one you know if they not only beat spain but run up the plus minus there's a chance they could be sending the spaniards home and uh i think certainly jordy fernandez who's had some history with the Spanish Federation and, you know, quite frankly, a team that, you know, is expecting to contend for medal.

If you could end that trip early, you'd want to do that too. You want to be one of the top seeds as you get into the quarterfinals to give yourself an opportunity not to play potentially one of the second place teams or even make sure you don't fall to second yourself with a loss and have to play a first place team or a good second place team you want to play one of those third place qualifiers and so for all those reasons I think the goal for them remains the same to make sure they win, they get through the group. They keep a nice path as best as possible through the quarterfinals to potentially the semis and final.

And you want to delay when you play the Americans for as long as possible. And so I think for them, they understand that this game matters in the short and long term. Tell us a bit about this Spanish team. What is the one thing that you think about when you think about the Spanish team? So, I mean, I'm reticent to say this, you know, half hour before tip,

but overrated? I just... Oh boy, there's the jinx. Canada's losing tonight. Yeah, right? I mean, I whispered it. Does that make it better? So many people came in saying, you know, oh, group of death.

And man, you know, it's terrible that Canada had to be in the same group as Spain and Australia and Greece. And I was like, actually, Australia scares me the most by far. They've got eight NBA players, uh you know outside of obviously the united states who has all nba players in canada with ten of the highest and uh the nbl their their local league is the best league for me the best domestic league outside of the nba we remember the the great spanish generation teams because of the gasol brothers and you know because of the Gasol brothers and because of Canadians, Raptors fans, Jose Calderon and Jorge Garboza. We're far away from that. So yeah, Rudy Fernandez in FIBA is still a real player, but

it's a team that lacks athleticism, that really quite frankly had some scary moments versus Greece, as did we to be fair. But I think this is a team where the name on the jersey and those colors are a little bit more scary. I think if we're worried about Spain as Canadians, it's because Alcaraz knocked out the El Chilo Gale team, not because their basketball is is as much of a threat well i'm an england supporter so i'm not too impressed with spain right now anyway i'm still thinking about the euro finals so i'm hoping canada uh wipes the court with uh spain is it possible that they use a game like this and i'm talking about the canadians to try and get jamal mur Murray going or have they pretty much just accepted that

what they're getting from Jamal Murray is what they're probably going to get? I think they do use it to get him going, get him feeling confident and get him having a better understanding, you know, in a backcourt with Shea Gildas Alexander, something that I think we're going to see increasingly in crunch time, certainly in scenarios where you're down and you need a bucket. Remember, as much as these guys have been a part of that core three-year commitment, and as much as they've both played for Canada internationally in the past, they haven't really played together until now. Jamal played in the Pan Ams.

Shea played as a junior. They're separated by age by a year and then also obviously Shea played outstandingly last year so the fact that Jamal hasn't been starting they haven't been sharing the court as much

I think we see more lineups with them together for them to understand time and space and when I'm not dominating the ball the way I am for my NBA team, where should I be? Where do you need me to be? Where do you want me to cut or spot up on the weak side? So I think we'll see some rotations just to have a little bit of a dress rehearsal

for what we should be expecting when the games are for real. This will be qualifying for F1. You want to put down a good time, but also you are doing some research and development for when the flag goes, the gun goes off, and things are really high stakes. What have you thought of R.J. Barrett in these first couple games and him maybe stepping up in the absence of Jamal Murray

at the moment? I thought that the Raptors need him to wear a Team Canada jersey underneath his Raptors jersey because FIBA RJ is a problem, right? There's always, for every nation it seems, players who play better internationally than they do at times in the NBA, right? FIBA, Patty Mills is certainly a thing. Olympic mellow was, I'm telling you, R.J. Barrett. He just puts his head down and is a raging bull to the basket whenever he's playing for Canada. Maybe it's because since he was born, literally, in his house in Mississauga, which the family still has, in the

hallway from the living room to the kitchen was Rowan's jersey. And he had to pass it and see it every day. And he often said, as a teenager, you know, I want to remove that and put mine up there. And Rowan's like, well, how about we slow down? Maybe we can move it over.

You can put yours up because that jersey helped to pay for this house. But I think when you've been desirous to get on this stage for so long and you're there, that sweat equity is going to push you to a different level. He's been aggressive offensively. He's knocked down the three ball, which has been inconsistent for him at times, but really something that this team needs in terms of the spacing it provides. But I think the biggest thing is how many times when there's a 50-50 ball, when there's a contested rebound,

and you're just screaming at your TV to get it and corral it, and you do, and then you look up, and as people come down the court, it's like, oh, that's right, that single digit is RJ. That's him, you know, putting himself in harm's way time and time again. So the intensity, the effort, and quite frankly, the buckets have been much needed. And I'm so happy for him personally, but certainly so happy for the family, given, you know given the tragic loss that they had with his brother Nathan dying earlier this year. I want to give them some joy, and he's certainly found joy in Paris.

What other things does this team need to work on? I'm not acting like this game against Spain is a practice or anything, but where do they need to improve so that they can get rolling right into the quarterfinals? So I'm going to tell you verbatim the thing that I've texted to my Canada basketball group chat, which is just an amazing thing to be able to say. I'm so happy that this team is back on the stage, and we're able to have Canada basketball watch parties and group chats.

But in all caps, with an angry emoji, I've texted so many times, just don't foul. And this team is aggressive, and you love it, especially as a Canadian. But they're also athletic. They're so athletic, you don't have to pick up 90 feet all of the time,

and you don't have to run through the screen all the time, and you don't have to use your hands. You can just stay in a stance and use your feet. They're so athletic. We've seen it in long stretches, both in the World Cup and in the Olympics. When they lock in and just defend they're hard to score against that's going to be true forever quite frankly that was true for the americans to start the first exhibition game when they get over aggressive and it's not even as if it's something obscene or wild the issue is that the officiating in FIBA is so unpredictable that you

don't know from one possession to the next what's a play on and what's a foul. So take the referees out of it. Show your hands. Use your feet. Be smart. And if you do that, you're going to be fine. I think they have enough depth

that they can get through some foul trouble if their guards are in foul trouble or their bigs are. But again, when these games are close and it's tense and you're playing for the right to advance and the right to determine the color of the metal, you don't want to be worried about foul trouble and having to play cautious so for me i think the thing would be you know all canadians would love to get to the fourth

quarter and not have dan shulman update us on the amount of fouls on kevin brooks and lou dort and dwight fowl so that would be the thing well all three of those guys fouled out against Greece and in a related story Greece has Giannis is that easier said than done to not foul when Canada could potentially be going up against some of the big you know the elite bigs in in the world and they don't really have one themselves yeah no question and i think in the case of janice sometimes the best advice would be to foul yes having a dunk on your head put him on the free throw line and cross your fingers but when you look at what it could be you know potential opponents over the next couple days as you get into the knockout round.

You're looking at Germany with the Wagner brothers. You're looking at, obviously, Serbia with, you know, a multi-time MVP in Jokic. You're looking at France, who starts two seven-footers. Again, in case of one of them, Rudy Gobert, it might be better two foul or just get out of the way if he has the ball on offense because that means it's not in a better playmaker's hands. But I think, to your point,

you're going to have a lot of size over the next couple days, and that's not even including playing the United States and the Americans who have two great centers coming off the bench. Never mind Embiid as an MVP, if they decide to go back to starting him. So it is easier said than done, but I'm going to share with you another thing I said in my group chat, and it was,

why is Ken Bir Burch in the game? And he was in the game because of foul trouble, but after some choppy minutes, he actually gave them some energy and some presence around the basket. So it will be certainly a point of emphasis as we get through this tournament. 40-minute games just go by in a flash. The difference between 5,000 and 6,000 is significant. So we'll see how they can do.

Yeah, it does seem a lot easier to foul out. It certainly did against Greece because they did it three times. We're chatting Olympics with Donovan Bennett here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Donovan, let's talk a little women's soccer. So the women got through the group stage incredibly, considering they were docked six points for the drone spying scandal. They won all three of their games. That France match was incredible, the way they were able to pull that off

uh late uh on french soil against a very good french team they got the one key goal they needed against columbia um and it kind of felt like in canada it was like they did it they did it well they haven't really done it um now they're going to get Germany in the quarterfinals. And remember, Canada is defending a gold medal here. What are the challenges that Germany presents Canada? Yeah, congratulations. You did it. You raised the six-point deficit.

You got through. You didn't lose a game in the tournament. Your reward? You play the fourth-ranked team in the world who qualified out of by far the most difficult region in Europe with Spain and France and England, who are the one, two, and three-ranked teams in the world. The women's football in Europe is so good, and it helps when you have domestic leagues, so thank God that the NSL is on the way. England, who won Euros, didn't even qualify for the Olympics. Spain, who won the World Cup,

has been building for a while, and so has Germany. And you have a sense that it's their time. As I mentioned, England won Euros. Spain won the World Cup. Germany's been knocking on the door, and this will be their breakthrough. They did look shaky versus the United States, especially defensively,

but the real threat from Germany is offensively. There's so many offensive playmakers. The second amount of goals thus far in the tournament, and so it's essentially unstoppable force versus a movable object because Canada has been very good defensively with the clean sheet, those clutch versus Columbia. And I'll be really interested to see how they set up because they knew essentially in the third game

and really for the better part of their second game, they had to go for it. What we saw in their third match against Columbia was 3-4-3, pushing up, going for it offensively, trying to score, no holding midfielder to start as Quinn came off the bench because they knew they had to not only win, they knew they had to score goals

to get through. Germany, as I mentioned, a great offensive team. Are you a little bit more pragmatic, a little bit more cagey? Or do you throw caution to the wind because without to mention a great offensive team are you a little bit more pragmatic a little bit more cagey or do you throw caution to the wind because without the all-time leading goal scorer and christine sinclair you know you're gonna have to get goals from all different types of areas even if it means two from a center back yeah so that's my big question with canada do they have enough goal scorers clutch goal scorers well i think the, and this is the question we have in my Canada soccer group,

Jack, great that we can have those as well, is has anyone determined yet who their best 11 is, who their best front three is? We've seen six different attacking players start matches thus far in this tournament for Canada. I'm not convinced we know what the best combination of three is. And that's not even including Janine Becky, who's been used more in a depth role, whether it be as a wingback or a midfielder.

But we know she has the capability to play in the final third. So I don't know. I'm fascinated to know what the team sheet will look like. That will give us an indication on how they plan to set up and if they try to nullify the offensive threat for Germany or they try to activate their own offensive threat. But think about it. The second best player probably when they won in Tokyo was Quinn.

The person who scored the game-winning PK was Julia Grosso, and both of them have been somewhat peripheral players in this tournament. Grosso obviously got the start alongside others in the midfield. So we'll see how they set up. I'm really interested to see what, I suppose, Andy Spence decides, although I'm sure Beth Priestman is FaceTiming and giving input. I wonder if she is. I wonder if she is.

You know what? I think she is. I think so. Is that allowed? She probably shouldn't be. What if that comes out? I hope Rick Westhead doesn't get information about that. I don't know if what allowed has been a cause for concern for this federation

and some of the coaches for the last little bit. I don't necessarily know, and I'm not alluding to the fact that she might be FaceTiming in-game, but I'm talking about in the lead-up in terms of preparation. I always thought Herdman would be wearing an AirPod while he's coaching. I always thought, like, who is he talking to? Who is he on the phone with at this time? But I do think, though, in terms of motivation, because let's be honest,

Pat Priestman has coached her last game for Canada Soccer. One, she's spent it for a year. Two, there's no coming back from this but i do think if she you know plans to work in football moving forward which i assume she does her being able to say yes i have this scandal i've learned my lesson you know i i have gone away I've paid my penance. However, I will remind you, I did win Olympic gold, and I did win fill-in-the-blank whatever this team does. I do think launching her to whatever her next role is,

the performance of this team will matter. And so I think for sure, even though she knows she's not going to be moving forward with Canada soccer after this, I think she would be invested in the performance being as good as possible, because that's going to look good on her LinkedIn page when she goes to update it. Hey Donovan, real quick here, we've only got a minute or two, but how do you think the players feel about Bev Priestman? Do they still have a love and respect and appreciation for her,

or are they pretty angry at the position they put the the that she put them in enraged all the things that i've heard has been that the camp was borderline toxic to the kinwis and this obviously pushed it over there do i think anyone you know if you've been in a relationship, when someone cheats on you, it could be someone you deeply loved and have feelings for and had great memories with, but you're done with them

and you just want to cut them out of your life. And I think that's the stage that these women are at. They're annoyed. Once again, they've been put in this position. Normally their fight

was with the Federation and Bev could have been a sounding board because she was just an innocent bystander. Now she's in their crosshairs, and I get it, quite frankly. Totally. Absolutely. Donovan, always appreciate chatting with you. I'm off on vacation for a couple of weeks, but I just wanted to say that I've really enjoyed

chatting about the Olympics with you, whether it's soccer or basketball. It's been a pleasure. I've enjoyed it as well. Enjoy your vacation. And Canadians, enjoy being able to wake up different times depending on where you are and throw on sports

and just watch our athletes compete. This is the best. See you, Donovan. Enjoy, buddy. Later. That was Donovan Bennett. That was interesting what he said right at the end there.

The things he's heard is that they're enraged. Makes sense. At that Priestman. And I would be. Oh, yeah. That's a good analogy. I am still enraged about... I'll bring it up every day.

Even when I come back from vacation, the gall she had to get up there and act like she was acting all heroic by offering to sit out the new zealand match which really bothers me what should she have said though like that info wasn't out she didn't need to go as far as she she did you don't have to say anything she she said she made it seem like uh i'm not responsible for this but for the sake of sportsmanship and because i'm a leader and because I'm accountable and because I have so much respect for our opponents that I will sit out one match. And it's like she's like she expected.

And now you can all give me a standing ovation. And in reality, when you think about all the knowledge that she did have in this, to go up there and to not only deny it, but to take it a step further past that denial and say like, and this is what good leaders do. They fall on their sword. No, what you're doing right now is lying and throwing your coaching staff under the bus. Following your drum. I never ever want to see her coaching another game for Canada. Moj is coming up next.

The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions. 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. We'll talk to the Moj. On the other side, it is Halford M. Brough on Sportsnet 650.