Photo Credit: OJLL / A Papineau

The OJLL confirmed Wednesday that the Toronto Beaches will be forced to forfeit their first eight games of the 2024 season due to a violation of league rules regarding the use of players from affiliate organizations.

The decision was confirmed by the OJLL in a statement. The statement said, “it was determined that the Toronto Beaches Junior “A” Lacrosse Club exceeded the maximum number of direct releases permitted under OLA Regulation 6.35(a). Additionally, the club allowed the participation of a player who was not properly rostered to an OLA team prior to this season.”

The move will shift the record of the Beaches from a perfect 12-0 to now 4-8. With still eight games to play on the OJLL calendar, they will have time to push for the playoffs. But their seeding and ability to secure home floor advantage will be significantly impacted. 

In addition, the statistics from the Beaches players will be wiped from those games. Willem Firth is the leading scorer in all of Canada, while Greg Palmer and Matt Collison were near the top of the OJLL standings. All of these stats will be obviously impacted. 

The most significant league-wide impact of the forfeiture is the positive impact it will have on the standings for teams that lost in the now forfeited games by the Beaches. The Beaches eight forfeited wins will not just be taken away but given back to the teams they played in those games. Here is what the OJLL standings looked like before the announcement. 

The biggest “winners” are the Burlington Blaze and St. Catharines Athletics, who will each gain two wins and lose two losses. The shift puts the Athletics back into the playoffs (for now) and shifts the Blaze into a great position for the second half of the season.

Peterborough, Six Nations, Brampton, and Orangeville will all gain a win. As you can see in the above chart, the change will push Orangeville into sole possession of first place.

After the update, the standings will look like this. 

In addition to the news about the games, the league announced in the same statement that the game previously scheduled to be held at Howard Darwin Arena on June 29th, will now be held at the regular home venue for the Beaches, Ted Reeve arena.

Obviously, the change sets up some interesting playoff scenarios. The Beaches should have enough time to make their way out of the basement, but it remains unclear just how high they will be able to get. A team like Orangeville could benefit short-term from this move, but then have to play the Beach in an early playoff series. 

Likewise, the move will impact Saturday’s upcoming trade deadline. While teams have to decide whether to buy or sell, that decision will change given the updated standings. A team like Brampton for example, is suddenly in third. Might they be looking to add a piece or two? Fans won’t have to wait long for the answers to these questions, which will have a significant impact on the rest of the calendar. 

The change obviously ends the Beaches’ chance at a perfect record, which would have put them on a short-list of teams all-time. But adversity is not the worst thing for a team, and this Beaches team will have no problem adopting the under-dog mentality the rest of the way. 

They have time, but they don’t have much margin for error. They need to go on a run. 

But something tells me that the run might end in Coquitlam. 

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