Youth boost for cup

A MORE even competition – and a better one.

NRL premiershipwinner Scott Sattler’s forecast for the 2018 Intrust Super Cup is a simple one, insisting a new era looms for a competition now destined to fulfil its second-tier status.

With the maligned under-20 National Youth Competition scrapped, experts predict the overflow of talent that once split across two leagues will now find a home in just one.

That’s good news for ISC fans, Sattler insists, with the influx of the best junior prospects now bolstering every team.

“I think it (the ISC) was already a genuine secondtier competition but the NYC probably drained players who could have been playing in that next tier,” he said.

“I think it (the NYC) affected the quality of the competition.

“The perception was that the ISC was a second-tier competition but it wasn’t treated like that.

“Those 19-year-olds who were dominating the NYC, they should have been spending some time in the ISC. With the NYC competition going, it’s opened up a broader talent pool for all the clubs.

“I think 2018 will be one of the strongest competitions in a long time. I think it is a new era.”

Sattler expects the ISC’s perennial weaker sides to now rise on the back of a deeper talent pool.

“Some of those teams religiously at the bottom of the table didn’t have the ability to strengthen their squads with good, young enthusiastic players,” he said. “Those teams who have been at the bottom like Tweed, Capras and Mackay, this change gives them a chance.”

Sattler nominated the Townsville Blackhawks as the team to beat but conceded the “usual suspects” – Redcliffe, Easts and Sunshine Coast – are likely to be in the mix.

“I think the Hunters will struggle a bit,” he said of the premiers. They have lost a lot of players to the Super League and will be fighting for fifth or sixth with a few other teams.”