I personally never saw the logic. I believe NSWRL have raised the ages to 19 & 21 for their comps which works out ok for the kids this year, but what happens next year? And what happens to the 16 year olds that would have qualified but now are competing against the 17 and 18s so basically 3 times the amount of kids.
It’s an unfortunate situation that this years comps were cancelled I just never saw adjusting the age groups as the answer.
And I am saying that as a parent of kid who was in his second year of Mal Mening.