Darrell Davis: Curlers are great, but their ‘mudified’ Brier playoffs need work

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There’s always one really good thing about Canadian curling championships:

The curlers. Watch them interact between draws at the Montana’s Brier, signing autographs for fans, posing for selfies, shaking hands and conducting media interviews after gratifying wins or disheartening losses.

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Following a tough defeat against Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher during the Canadian men’s curling championship at the Brandt Centre, Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone angrily threw his broom onto the floor beside the interview area, mumbled something incoherent and took a deep breath before turning around to politely answer questions from several reporters.

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Alberta’s Marc Kennedy walked past, stopping to thank some older fans who said, “Nice game!” The team from Northern Ontario, skipped by Trevor Bonot, has been waving along while getting serenaded by fans after victories.

Ask E.J. Harnden, a former Brier winner from Ontario, how he ended up playing and practising with Brad Gushue’s rink from Newfoundland as it tries defend its championship. You will get a detailed answer, explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the arrangement.

“This is our week,” said Ben Hebert, a Regina product who plays lead on Bottcher’s team and is competing in his 16th national men’s championship. “The Brier is the epic week of all curling.

“If you can’t come out here and enjoy it, the packed house and the fans and the ice and everyone being around, you shouldn’t be playing.”

Like many of his fellow competitors, Hebert has never been afraid to state his opinions when it comes to their favourite sport. Bottcher, Gushue, other former champs like Jeff Stoughton and Kevin Martin, Russ Howard and Glenn Howard, Wayne Middaugh and Randy Ferbey, also had opinions. They obviously care seriously about curling. Their recommendations have helped evolve the game.

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It’s the same at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, where women’s champions past and present are just as approachable and willing to share their thoughts.

And honestly, there has never been a better sportswriting assignment than following Sandra Schmirler and her teammates — Jan Betker, Joan McCusker and Marcia Gudereit — as they trekked towards a world championship while sharing motherhood stories with their pregnant skip, to Maple Creek, Swift Current, Vancouver and Bern, Switzerland.

That approachability, the love for their sport, helps explain why Nolan Thiessen, a championship curler-turned-CEO, was willing to patiently explain Curling Canada’s residency rules, qualifying procedures and playoff formats to a media heathen who believes they’re too convoluted.

First came the explanation why some provincial championship rinks contain players from other provinces or territories.

“About 12 years ago they brought in a rule where you can have one free agent on each team,” said Thiessen. “Five or six years ago we brought in birthright, where an athlete can sort of play for whatever province they were born in. A lot goes into team building and we provided them with the most opportunities we could, knowing that representing your province or territory is really important.”

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But there are wild-card teams, plus Team Canada, that don’t abide by residency rules.

“It was a bit of trying to merge two ideas,” said Thiessen. “One being the provincial/territorial competition, the other being the number of good teams in this country that should have an opportunity to play for a Canadian championship.”

There used to be only 10 provincial representatives in the Brier, plus Northern Ontario, before the addition of Team Canada, three Territories and wild-card qualifiers from the pro tour. Is it too many?

“The reality is we’re 18 teams because we want as many good teams there as possible,” said Thiessen. “You’re not going to pay a 17-game round-robin, not in a week, so it’s going to be two pools of nine and we have to find a way to cross those pools over.”

And that’s where it gets goofy, with the top three teams qualifying from each pool into a “modified” Page playoff format that allows extra chances for top placers and makes sure there are playoff games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday while 1-plays-2, 2-plays-1, losers-play-3 … It seems like nobody gets eliminated. Why not simply have eight qualifiers in a single-elimination draw?

“We went through it with the players and they thought this was the best way to do it,” said Thiessen. “This is the third straight year and we always have a pretty good final.”

We’ll concede everything else, but a small tweak would help even non-players understand the “mudified” playoff format.

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