Penrith coach and self-confessed hypocrite Matt Elliott says the NRL should go the whole hog with its new national under-20s competition and ban teenagers from first-grade football.
The Panthers voiced major concerns over the new competition - in which all 16 NRL franchises will field a youth team for the full 26 rounds - even as they became the first club to announce a coach and sponsor for their under-20s side.
"Earlier in the season I was not a supporter of the 20s competition as it's been proposed," Elliott told AAP as the Panthers announced Premier League coach Steve Georgalis as their National Youth 20s mentor.
"I think that the developmental process that has been in place in our game for a while is the one thing in our sport that has consistently worked, and we're tampering with it.
"You either embrace it or you don't so our decision is to embrace it.
"What I'm saying is, if you're going to embrace it, let's go the whole way and you can't play first grade until your 21st year.
"I certainly can be accused of not practising what I preach because I've got a lot of young guys in our team."
The National Youth 20s competition, to also be known as the Toyota Cup, will provide the curtain-raisers to NRL games, with the NSW-based Premier League moving back to suburban grounds.
But despite Penrith being first off the blocks and turning on a function for the announcement, general manager Michael Leary sounded far from convinced the new competition was a winner.
"It's going to be a wait-and-see product," Leary told AAP.
"There's a lot of things will be answered in 2008 in so far as its success (is concerned).
"I think for youth to be given opportunity in front of good crowds will be a great asset to the game but, as to how far they're going to go from there, I think the jury's out."
North Queensland also announced a coach for their side in NRL assistant Grant Bell.
But the announcements come amidst concerns that teenage players like St George Illawarra's Chase Stanley, Wests Tigers' Chris Lawrence and Melbourne's Israel Folau could fall victim to the NRL's alarming injury rate in the long term.
Elliott raised the issue in his `Big League' column this week and premiership-winning coach and commentator Phil Gould has consistently voiced his concerns.
National Youth 20s tournament boss Michael Buettner said the changes reflected the trend towards youth, adding young players would be educated by the NRL to help them cope with the mental pressures of the jump in profile.
"I guess it's the old theory, if you're good enough you're old enough," Buettner told AAP.
"I don't think it's perceived being such a big issue.
"The programs they're in now as 15, 16-year-olds are way ahead of where they were 15, 20 years ago.
"So physically these guys are coming into the NRL better than they've ever been and, if they've got the skill to go with it, that's a huge advantage and I think we're going to see more of that in years to come.
"This (competition) might actually slow down the process to an extent that there is a (strong) competition there ... where we can hold those players back slightly.
"I can see benefits both ways."
