2024 Mann Cup Preview
Photo: Darryl Smart
Graphic: Dave Fryer
The 2024 Mann Cup between Major Series Lacrosse’s Six Nations Chiefs and the Western Lacrosse Association’s Victoria Shamrocks is supposed to start today, but will it?
As of this past Thursday evening, rumours surfaced that the Shamrocks were threatening to pull out of the Senior A series.
Why?
A recap of a ridiculous week that started months ago…
In May of this year during Lacrosse Canada’s Semi-Annual General Meeting, the British Columbia Lacrosse Association requested to be moved from a Type 1 “association for Sr A National Championships” to Type 2. The desired demotion, which included an in-depth presentation of Ontario’s recent dominance over British Columbia at the Mann Cup, was done in order to trigger a long-standing rule that is not available to Type 1 associations (it apparently was many decades ago, but that is no longer the case).
The rule?
As we’ve seen Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League teams do since they were allowed into Minto Cup competition (Canada’s national Junior A tournament) in 2003, a Type 2 association, which Alberta’s RMLL would be considered, can add upwards of three players from elsewhere in their league at the conclusion of their provincial playoffs and just prior to the Minto. It’s worth noting that this levelling-of-competition rule has not helped an RMLL team capture the Minto Cup (they came close, once), their teams rarely winning a game against the only other two provinces in the event, Ontario & British Columbia.
When the BCLA’s request was put to a vote during Lacrosse Canada’s SAGM, every province except for Ontario were in favour of dropping them from Type 1 to Type 2.
While not a word was publicly spoken and the decision seemed to be a secret of sorts, it appeared at least, that everyone left those meetings believing that this summer’s WLA champion would have the option to add three other-team players prior to leaving for the Mann Cup in 2024’s host province, Ontario.
The Shamrocks, who had a record-setting WLA regular season (18-0) and then went on to win their provincial playoffs, announced earlier this week that they would be adding standouts Will Malcom & Mike Messenger, both property of the New Westminster Salmonbellies, to their Mann Cup roster. Their statement, which has since been deleted from Victoria’s website, in part read:
This will be the first time in many years that a team has been allowed to pick up players for the Mann Cup. Earlier this year, Lacrosse Canada made the chance to allow only the Western representative to add up to three players. This was done to try and bring some competitive balance back to the competition.
The secret was out, and the social media shit storm started. Most, even prominent past & present WLA players, were not in favour of the last-minute Mann moves:
Days later, Lacrosse Canada, who seemingly allowed WLA representatives to leave last May’s SAGM with the knowledge they’d most definitely been demoted, issued the following statement on their website:
Lacrosse Canada is aware of a situation related to the Victoria Shamrocks with regards to adding two players for the 2024 Mann Cup in Six Nations that begins tomorrow, Friday, September 6th.
Lacrosse Canada was presented with a policy change to 24.3.2.2 at the Semi Annual meeting to allow BCLA (British Columbia Lacrosse Association) to become a Type 2 association for Sr A National Championships. This motion was carried at the sector level.
However, the Board of Directors still had not voted on this policy change and an immediate vote was held yesterday September 4th, 2024 by all Board members. The requested policy change did not pass, therefore BCLA will remain as a Type 1 rating and the Victoria Shamrocks will not be able to pick up players to their roster for the 2024 Mann Cup.
No further comments will be made at this time.
Rules are rules, right? Even if the rule makers themselves can’t seem to keep up with an absurd amount of, well, rules, regulations, boards, votes and other roadblocks that never seem to be consistently followed.
Late on Thursday evening, 2024 National Lacrosse League Media Person of the Year, Adam Levi, shared the following on X:
So here we are.
On the day the Mann Cup is scheduled to start, on a day players & coaches should be focussed on nothing else but the final, on a day that should feel like a celebration of the sport and not the constant complete chaos summer lacrosse continues to be; doubt clouds a Senior A series that was once considered the sport’s holy grail.
Even after professional lacrosse finally built a foundation that lasted more than a few years through today’s NLL (there were previous short-lived attempts at pro box in the 70s and even earlier), Senior A lacrosse and especially the Mann Cup still felt more special than the pro game. Canadian & Indigenous players would rather win a Mann than an NLL championship. While some will still say otherwise, that is no longer the case, and hasn’t been for quite some time.
So, does the Mann Cup still matter?
Of course, but not like it used to. The Mann is essentially an NLL All-Star Game, on both sides of the floor (sure, Ontario spends significant money to build their Mann rosters, but Victoria enters this year’s series with upwards of seven out-of-province runners, while both of their goalies are from Ontario), and the lacrosse is obviously incredible. If you can get past all the almost annual bullshit, the Mann Cup is still capable of delivering the best box lacrosse you’ll witness during the summer, or any other season for that matter.
The Senior A model is clearly not a sustainable one, not now. The same Six Nations Chiefs that will hopefully attempt to win their eighth Mann Cup this week, were ready to walk away from the league a few years ago due to a lack of fan support and a variety of gripes with the OLA and LC.
No other sport with a professional league has an arm that operates like Senior A lacrosse does.
Thought to be an amateur level of lacrosse, nothing about Senior is amateur, both the MSL & WLA filled with NLL players, many of whom are paid exceptionally well for their summertime services. The same is happening at the Senior B level now too. No one else steers their ship like this, except us, and it’s been going on for so long it feels like there is no way out of this absurd environment.
am·a·teur
/ˈamədər,ˈaməˌtər,ˈaməˌCHər/
noun
1. a person who engages in a pursuit, especially a sport, on an unpaid rather than a professional basis.
"it takes five years for a top amateur to become a real Tour de France rider"
2. a person who is incompetent or inept at a particular activity.
"that bunch of stumbling amateurs"
Senior A lacrosse is neither, and you can save your snarky comments about number two applying to those that manage & govern the sport, because they’re often the individuals attempting to hurdle those previously mentioned roadblocks. Not all, but many.
The Canadian lacrosse landscape is likely the most lopsided sporting scene in the country, and what we’ve convinced ourselves is normal within our bumbling box lacrosse bubble, has turned off more fans and potential players than we realize. We’re Canada’s national summer sport, but in title only.
Will the 2024 Mann Cup take place as planned? Probably. While never has this exact roster-related issue come up in the past, others have, only to be solved with some last-second solution.
Winning at all costs has long ago superseded common sense when it comes to Canadian lacrosse, and that goes well beyond the Senior A level. It’s a sad situation, and the sport is suffering as a result.
Canadian lacrosse is filled with individuals who want the best for the game, but the often-outdated blueprints everyone is forced to follow make it nearly impossible to generate any good growth for the betterment of the sport and the athletes within it.
We are hopefully just hours away from witnessing 40 of the greatest box lacrosse players on the planet (who are usually our sole focus in preview posts like this one) competing for a Cup that is currently in many ways broken, but whose history shines brighter than virtually any other sporting trophy in the country.
Yes, the Mann Cup still matters, but for how much longer?