PONAG Information
PONAG Information
The GCBA Competition Committee strongly recommends that wherever possible, junior players play in their natural age group. There is a great deal of evidence documenting the benefits of junior players playing and excelling in games for their natural age group.
PONAG – Playing Outside Natural Age Group - has been devised for two reasons:
a) Where a player does not have the physical skills to cope with games in their natural age group and thus requests to play at a lower age group for the course of the season.
b) Where a player has skills which allow them to play and cope playing games at a higher age group and that player wishes to play at the higher age group for a game when a higher age team requires additional player/s.
Where players wish to play outside of their natural age group, it is important to ensure that the player is not overwhelmed by the higher or lower age group playing standard or the player’s skills represent an unfair advantage when they play in the higher or lower age group.
The GCBA Competition Committee has decided that PONAG will only be granted to players as follows:
a) Playing Up – must only be the age group immediately above their natural age group.
b) Playing Up - permitted for single games (maximum 5 games including Finals games) or for the full season.
c) A player playing up for the full season is excluded from playing in their natural age group for that season.
i. A breach of this rule results in an illegal player and loss of game.
d) Playing Down – must be in the first year of their natural age group. Players playing in the second year of their natural age group are not permitted to play down under any circumstances.
e) Playing Down – permitted only for the season, not available for single games.
f) A player playing down is excluded from playing in their natural age group for that season.
i. A breach of this rule results in an illegal player and loss of game.
g) Any team in a GCBA baseball competition will not be permitted to play more than three PONAG players per game.
Refer to the GCBA By-Laws for further details and conditions.