About time! The U20's comp gives such a false impression while also creating uneccessary 'hype' on a young players NRL potential, especially the players themselves! The pressure and expectation to succeed and graduate from the NYC and straight into the NRL is immense and all that pressure and expectation put on these young kids has had a lot of influence on the 5 NYC player suicides over the past 2 years! It's uneccessary pressure forced upon them by false expectations and uneccessary hype.
Defense is basically non existent in the 20's and it's not until they make the step up to State Cup that they actually start to learn how to defend and tackle properly!
Thanks to the lack of defense, the 20's is an attacking spectical, and one of the main reasons why the NRL introduced the NYC and promoted as such!
So many people 'rate' players highly based on their NYC performances but in reality most of those players can't defend and only have 1 dimension to their game! Yeah it works for them in the NYC but when they get up and play against the big boys, their deficiencies are 'found out' as such and the players not only get a reality check but they also begin to really learn the game, learn how to ply their trade against bigger, more experienced players and giving their game more dimensionality. Plus their skill development is more consistently progressive!
For the game, the players development, the players mental welfare, scrapping the U20's and reinstating the State Cup and promoting like they currently do with the NYC is absolutely the best and right decision!