Joseph Suaalii was officially granted an exemption on Monday, allowing the Roosters rookie to debut before his 18th birthday. But while the youngster's talent is undoubted, the NRL has set a scary precedent for the competition.

If handed his maiden NRL jersey before his August 1st birthday, he'll be the code's first 17 year-old debutant since Jason Taumalolo in 2010. He'd join a long list of famous under-18 players including Wade Graham, Mitchell Pearce and Israel Folau, though none have made the grade in the past 11 years.

The Roosters reportedly put forward a presentation to NRL CEO Andrew Abdo including a HSC plan, a sport science breakdown of his performance and an interview with Suaalii's headmaster as a character reference, as well as the fact that the kid may be lost to Rugby if the exemption wasn't given.

However, there's more to this than how strong he is for his age, and how well he speaks to the media. The potential toll on his mental health must be taken into account.

Suaalii has been dominating headlines for well over 12 months now. His contract saga with South Sydney already leading to negative comments on social media from fans, but even that doesn't compare to the weight of expectations on the teenager's shoulders.

On Saturday, his Round 1 NSW Cup clash for the North Sydney Bears was shown live, with the camera cutting to the right centre at every opportunity. Whilst he did score two tries in the contest, every stoppage, every few sets, the lens was on Joseph, a walking headline before he's even legally allowed a beer.

Journalist Phil Rothfield included Suaalii in his 'Top 50 NRL players for the 2021 season' list within the past fortnight, as well as tipping him as an Origin debutant on his Twitter account. The higher the fan's expectations are raised, the more pressure on the kid to not just debut, but to shine, to star, to live up to the headlines.

Look at the toll media coverage left on Latrell Mitchell during his late 2019 contract saga. Everyday after the reports emerged of Latrell rejecting a deal from the Roosters, there was a new story about where he was heading, the figures involved, he couldn’t escape it. He left Sydney to take a break from the constant media reports, and returned to Taree.

While the saga obviously had an affect on Latrell, his brother Shaq said online comments hurt more than just his brother.

"People have got to realise that families see [social media criticism], it breaks their hearts. It hurts the person more because the family member is seeing that" he said in late 2019.

We can make these players lift all the weights you want, run as many laps as they physically can, but nothing can ready them for the online comments, the expectations on them when they stand in that spotlight. Joseph can't even legally go to the bar at the SCG, so how can he be expected to run out in front of 20,000 fans at the same venue, and perform to the level he's expected to?

While so many superstars before Suaalii have debuted at the age of 17, the media presence, especially social media, is nowhere what it is in the modern day. The NRL'S Facebook page alone has over 2.3 million people following it. Their post about Suaalii's exemption to play before turning 18 already has over 300 comments from people weighing in with their opinion, whether it be positive or negative. It's a lot to absorb for a kid months away from completing his HSC.

There's no doubt Suaalii has a lot of talent, and is physically ready to play. But mentally, how are we to know how he copes with the pressure? He's just a kid, he hasn't even been legally allowed to drive himself to training until August last year. He has a long, impressive NRL career ahead of him, so why not let him be a kid for a little while longer.

We've got another 15 years at least ahead of us, hearing the likes of Andrew Voss and Dan Ginnane screaming his surname as he leaps over one defender, or tramples another. There's still four and a half months until he turns 18, let him develop mentally as well as physically, then unleash him. It's worth the wait.