Shea Emry, left, and teammate Paul Woldu feint at defying superstition Thursday by pretending to touch the Grey Cup. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

A feel-good story of Grey Cup week is the Saskatchewan Roughriders use of four Canadian receivers, but the Montreal Alouettes have a ratio-changer of their own in linebacker Shea Emry.

The 23-year-old from Richmond, B.C., played almost exclusively on special teams as a rookie last season, but hard work in the off-season and a strong training camp won him the job of starting middle linebacker.

The six-foot, 235-pounder will be in that spot when the Alouettes face the Roughriders in the Grey Cup game on Sunday.

"The coaches kind of took a leap of faith in giving me the job right out of camp and I jumped at the opportunity and did my best," Emry said Thursday. "Mostly at the beginning of the year, I just wanted to fulfil my role on the team and not mess up.

"I just wanted to make sure my teammates respected me for my game. Once I started making a couple of plays, that's all I wanted to do. And gradually I got better and better."

The Alouettes wanted to be bigger and have better man-to-man coverage from their defence this season and part of that was to change the group of linebackers.

Only Diamond Ferri stayed put, while Emry moved into the middle and Chip Cox moved from defensive back to linebacker, with rookie Ramon Guzman slotting in during games.

They contributed to a defence that was best in the league this season, leading in 21 of the 25 defensive statistical categories that the CFL keeps.

Their 324 points allowed was 104 fewer than the next-best team, Hamilton, and they gave up nearly 400 fewer rushing yards than any other club.

Combined with the CFL's best offence, they had a record 15-3 season and crushed the B.C. Lions 56-18 in the East Division final to reach the Grey Cup game for the seventh time since 2000.

The defence will be tested against quarterback Darian Durant and the Roughriders, who were 10-7-1 this season but seemed to improve from week to week as the sophomore Durant gained experience.

'I know how it works'

Emry said having been through a Grey Cup last year, when Alouettes lost at home to the Calgary Stampeders, has helped him deal with the hoopla and expectations this time around.

"I know how it works and how stressful it is," he said. "It's a big game and everyone's watching and you have so many obligations during the week, but the game is just another football game to me.

"I just want to help the defence and special teams do the job and hopefully come out with a win."

"He's done a great job for us," said Alouettes defensive co-ordinator Tim Burke. "I think he's by far the best Canadian linebacker and one of the best linebackers, period, in the league."

Emry, drafted seventh overall by Montreal in 2007 from the UBC Thunderbirds, played almost all of last season on special teams, but worked hard on his game over the off-season and impressed the coaching staff in training camp enough to win the job.

"I'm really impressed by Chip this year, too," said Ferri. " I didn't think he'd be as physical as he was.

"The same with Shea. Call him a dumb rookie or whatever, but he didn't play like one this year."

Log in at CBCSports.ca and have your say on the Grey Cup in a live interactive chat with CFL columnist Malcolm Kelly and moderated by senior writer Doug Harrison on Friday at 2 p.m. ET.