It’s been a season of distractions for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on the road to the 101st Grey Cup.

That’s why the team was able to stay focused and loose as they packed up and headed west to Moose Jaw’s YaraCentre for their final practice before Sunday’s championship game.

“We’ve tried to keep our players focused on the things that are important and try to eliminate distractions, whether positive or negative distractions,” said head coach Kent Austin on Friday following the team’s indoor practice.  “Things like weather and location, none of that has an impact on your performance.”

Essentially forced to play on the road for the entire season after being pushed to Guelph while Ivor Wynne Stadium is rebuilt, the Ti-Cats have learnt to deal with the distractions throughout the season and have become closer because of it.

“We’ve got a pretty close team and the guys believe in each other,” said Austin.  “The bus trips help.  Any time that they can spend together as a group, you’re either going to make the most of it or you’re going to let it aggravate you and frustrate you, and our guys did let that happen.”

The team was loose and having fun back inside the warmth of the fieldhouse after practicing in the frigid cold at Mosaic Stadium for their first two workouts on the prairies.  The team seemed to be having fun throughout the practice, while also getting some good work in.

“It’s better to have people joking around than people being serious, it shows that they’re loose and they’re ready,” said running back C.J. Gable.  “If you can be focused in and joking around than that’s a plus.”

While the team is loose and having fun, they also seem to have a chip on their shoulder coming into this game as the underdogs in the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ home field.

“We’re use to this since we first started, everybody still didn’t give us a chance and didn’t believe in us,” said Gable.  “We just go out there and play our game, that’s about it.”

The Ti-Cats are young with 17 first-year CFL players on their roster, but that  hasn’t effected them due to a strong leadership core that has been built around those players.

“It starts with our head coach and our coordinators.  We have full confidence in what we can do,” said linebacker Jamall Johnson, who won a Grey Cup with the B.C. Lions in 2006.  “We’ve been together all year now, it’s been a long road and we’ve always stuck together and had each others back.

“We’re loose, but we’re here working.  We’ve got to go watch some film and iron out some things, but we’re having fun and we’re excited about the opportunity Sunday to play for the Cup.”

The Ti-Cats will hold their final walkthrough on Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium and then get ready to face-off with the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Sunday at 5:00pm.