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John Morris reconsiders his curling sabbatical: Joins reigning Brier champions in Alberta

Well, that didn't last long, did it?

John Morris, who announced just a few weeks ago that he was leaving his British Columbia team in order to step back from curling for awhile, has already announced his return to the game.

Morris, who skipped a B.C. based team featuring Jim Cotter, Tyrel Griffith and Rick Sawatsky in 2013-14, is the new skip of Team Canada, the team that returns to The Brier in 2015 as defending champs. While former skip Kevin Koe left that team to form a new squad, the remaining team members - Nolan Thiessen, Carter Rycroft and Pat Simmons - retained Team Canada status as long as the three of them confirmed that they would be part of the team.

Now, with Morris, the rink is rounded out and ready to defend.

This announcement answers, really, the last big question regarding men's rosters looking ahead to the 2014-15 season. It puts pretty much a capper on a torrent of change that had swept through Canadian men's curling since March, when the rumours of changes to the Koe rink were bubbling up, as well as the eventual changes to powerhouse rinks skipped by Kevin Martin, Jeff Stoughton and Glenn Howard.

The new Team Morris will be a five man set up, however, as Rycroft had already announced that he was taking a year off from curling before Koe led the team to the 2014 Brier Championship. With this being the first year that a Brier champ would be invited back to defend their title, Rycroft has relented some, confirming that he will play in a limited number of events in order to keep the Team Canada status for his mates.

That means, though that the team needs someone else to be a part of it in order to play a full schedule, something that the rest of the members apparently want to do.

So, enter Scott Bailey, the veteran curler who played vice for John Epping from 2010 through the 2013 Canadian Olympic Trials. Bailey, who was part of the Wayne Middaugh Brier and World Championship team of 1998, won a Players' Championship with Epping in 2012. With Bailey at the ready, the new Team Morris will be set for a full complement of World Curling Tour events.

Morris' joining of an Alberta team (Koe had defeated Martin at the Alberta Championship in order to appear at The Brier) might partially cool out the voices of outrage that were none too pleased to see someone living in one province and skipping a team from another. While Morris was the leader of what had formerly been (and will be once again) Team Cotter, he still resided in Alberta. That is technically against the regulations, but the Canadian Curling Association has what has been called toothless residency rules when it comes to provincial play downs and all someone really needs to play in a province other than the one in which they live in is a post office box in that province.

There has been speculation that the CCA might amend its rules to officially allow one out of province player to appear on any team that his searching for a provincial championship.

If they do it now, it won't necessarily be dubbed "The Morris Rule," and it will not do anything to satisfy those who want the sanctity of provincial representation protected.

"My plan was to take the 2014-15 season off as I move ahead in my career as a firefighter," Morris said in a Canadian Curling Association media release. "But to be able to play for Team Canada, and considering the Alberta events are so close to home, it was hard to pass up on this offer. I talked it over with (ex-teammates in B.C.) Jim, Tyrel and Rick and they were very understanding. I can't thank them enough for the season we had, and I wish them nothing but the very best going forward."

Cotter, meantime, has announced on his team's Facebook page (curiously, as of this posting, still called the Team Morris Page) that a new player has joined his team.

"We are extremely excited to announce that Ryan Kuhn will be joining our team at the 3rd position next season. For those that might not know, Ryan is the 2000 World Junior Champion and grew up in Vernon. Ryan is an extremely talented player so we are thrilled that he’s joining the team next season."