The St George Illawarra Dragons emerging stars will have the opportunity to push for NRL selection in 2021 when the NSW Cup makes its return.
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The NSW Rugby League announced on Tuesday the reserve grade competition will be contested next season after a one-year hiatus due to coronavirus.
The decision came amid concerns of players transitioning between the NRL and NSW Cup, with the tight NRL bubble requirements unable to be replicated for the reserve-grade competition. Many players are semi-professional and work jobs away from football.
It did, however, have a variety of flow-on effects for players and teams throughout 2020, with those on the fringe of first-grade selection bearing the brunt of the move.
With no NSW Cup, players returning from injury or attempting to break into the NRL were denied the opportunity to stake their claim in competitive matches.
The Dragons were able to organise a handful of training games against other reserve grade squads, however these too were suspended as NSW experienced a slight uptick in coronavirus cases.
With cases now under control and the NRL optimistic the 2021 season will largely resemble a normal competition, NSWRL announced the second-tier league will run in conjunction with the top flight.
Whereas the 2020 NSW Cup was slated to be a 12-team competition, just 10 teams will contest the 2021 season.
The league will kick off on the same weekend as the NRL, with NSWRL head of football Robert Lowrie confident they will not be impacted by coronavirus.
"We are really thrilled to be able to announce that our premier competition will go ahead after the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to cancel it this year," Lowrie said.
"The competition provides an important pathway to the NRL. Many open age competitions operated in New South Wales during season 2020. Much was learnt about COVID-19 protocols and confidence was gained about the capacity to safely conduct competitions in a COVID-safe way.
"We are therefore very confident of our ability to deliver all of our competitions safely and efficiently during the 2021 season. Additionally, we are working with an NRL representative from the Apollo Committee to construct bio-security protocols to mitigate risk and to enable player movement between the NRL and NSW Cup."