2025/26 Summer Season – Important Rule and Competition Updates
MEDIA RELEASE – 18/07/2025
With sign-on days fast approaching, Baseball Queensland would like to remind all players, coaches, clubs, and regions of important rule changes and competition updates that will take effect for the 2025/26 Summer season.
Below are some key updates to ensure everyone is prepared and well-informed.
Updates from Baseball Queensland
Queensland Women’s Championships (Division 1) Tech Norms Rule Update
The following rule will apply for player eligibility at the Women’s Division 1 Queensland State Championship:
Should a player be registered with, and/or have played with, two (2) or more affiliated teams during the season prior to the dates of the State Championship, the Region in which the player registers and pays their Baseball Australia and Baseball Queensland Capitation fees will have priority for selection.
It is a fundamental requirement of this policy that each team must exhaust all possible avenues to select players from within their own Regional boundaries first. If a team is unable to field a complete roster from within its Region, it may request approval from the BQ Game Development Manager to access players from other Regions.
Important notes:
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Regions must not directly approach “Friendship Players.” Breaches of this rule will result in the player being deemed ineligible for the tournament.
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All Friendship Players must register into the designated “Pool.” While a Friendship Player can nominate a preferred Region, there is no guarantee they will be assigned to that Region’s roster.
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Players participating in a Queensland local competition, or who have played for a Queensland Club, Region, or represented Queensland within the past 12 months, will have priority for team appointments over interstate or international players who have not participated in local Queensland competitions.
For further details or questions, please contact Baseball Queensland at admin@baseballqld.asn.au
Updates from the Greater Brisbane League (GBL) Competitions Committee
Please be aware these competition changes are relevant for 12-16 year-olds at any participating Greater Brisbane League clubs. The competition format may vary for the other 25/26 Summer competitions, Gold Coast Baseball Association and Sunshine Coast Baseball.
GBL – New Look Senior League Competitions
GBL have updated the Senior League competition formats that aligns with Baseball Australia guidelines. These changes aim to better support League Age players by offering flexibility in field measurements and age brackets, while allowing clubs to better match players based on experience and development needs.
Clubs will have the ability to:
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Place players in the most appropriate division during pre-season assessments.
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Move players during the season if they demonstrate significantly higher or lower skill levels, without needing to complete a formal “playing out of natural age group” process.
New Age Brackets and Divisions:
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Senior League 70 – 70′ bases, 50′ pitching (restricted runs competition)
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Senior League 80 – 80′ bases, 54′ pitching
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Senior League 90 – 90′ bases, 60’6″ pitching (restricted runs competition)
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Senior League 90 – 90′ bases, 60’6″ pitching
These changes are designed to support player development, improve game experiences, and ensure safe, fair, and competitive opportunities for all players. For further details or questions, please contact the GBL Competitions Committee at gbladmin@baseballqld.asn.au
Baseball Queensland encourages all clubs, coaches, and players to familiarise themselves with these updates ahead of the 2025 season.
It’s official – Western Districts Baseball Club will be entering teams into the GBL summer baseball Division 1 and 2 this season.
This provides junior players with some exciting player pathway opportunities at Wests including some great coaching from our highly experienced Coaching panel.
Andrew Kelly has been appointed as Head Coach and will be assisted by Alex Jacques; Damien Neale; Chris Adams and Brad Schneider for trainings and games.
The Club has just built a new Batting cage fitted out by Gabba Sports with two batting lanes. The Club has further improved Club infrastructure with an expanded bullpen, spectator grandstands and a new Amenities block being installed next to the Clubrooms.
The Western Districts Baseball Club would like to offer an open invitation to any members of the Queensland baseball community who wish to seek a playing position with the Club in Divisions 1 or 2 to attend trainings at the Club on Tuesday nights 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Contact – Andrew Kelly – 0411 822 729
2021 is the 60th anniversary of the Club being established in 1961. The Club is planning appropriate celebrations over the course of the season and our Division 1 team will be wearing a traditional pinstripe uniform for our night games.
Further information – Club Secretary – Kevin Alexander – secretary@westsbaseball.com.au
The Greater Brisbane League (GBL) Competition Committee is seeking expressions of interest for appointment as a member of its competition Judiciary. The Judiciary’s primary role is to investigate behavioral complaints about GBL members in the course of the GBL Baseball Competition and, where appropriate, administer penalties. The GBL Committee will be selecting a register of 5-6 members from which a panel of three will make up the Judiciary for each matter. The Committee is seeking candidates for and will also be selecting a new Judiciary Chairperson. Our previous Chairperson is not able to do this job for the new summer 2021/2022 summer baseball season.
The positions available are volunteer-based and out-of-office hours are to be expected. Work includes both consultation over email and, in some cases, hearings. Hearings are ordinarily scheduled on Thursday evenings at Sportshouse, Milton, but may be scheduled at any time determined by the Chairperson. The workload will be shared by the members.
Notes:
– The GBL Judiciary Procedures are published as an Appendix to the GBL Competition Rules which can be downloaded from the Baseball Queensland website.
– While it is difficult to estimate the workload of the Judiciary in advance, the past two seasons have had approximately 15 referrals over the 20 week season with less than 50% proceeding to a hearing.
Minimum Criteria/Qualifications
1. For the role of Chairperson, the GBL Committee is seeking someone who has legal experience and is independent of any GBL Club.
2. Other members of the Judiciary may be associated with GBL Clubs (although independent persons are preferred) but will be excluded where conflicts arise. Baseball experience in any capacity is favourable but not essential. The GBL Judiciary Procedures contain important processes which need to be followed. It is expected that successful applicants will be able to readily interpret and implement the Procedures.
Submission
Expressions of interest should outline the applicant’s background, experience and/or qualifications and any existing or previous club affiliations. These should be sent to the GBL Chair (Matt Glasson) at gblchair@baseballqld.asn.au by 5 pm Friday, 16th July 2021.
Regards
GBL Competition Committee
The Greater Brisbane League (GBL) Committee met with representatives from the constituent Clubs and Regions on Saturday 29 May at Redlands Rays Baseball Club to discuss a review of the competitions and number of proposals that might be implemented within the competitions moving forward.
Presentations were delivered to the assembled representatives across three key areas; Senior Competitions, Junior Competitions and Rule Updates.
The GBL Committee identified some of their goals for the next two seasons as:
• To provide more game time for junior players – improve the value proposition.
• To facilitate improvements to the competitions for all that play.
• To encourage more coaches to develop more players in various positions.
• To align junior competition grades with Baseball Australia.
• To create more uniformity in rules between all levels of baseball.
• To provide more equitable competitions.
• To grow participation in all competitions.
BQ Game Development Director, David Badke was pleased with the level of engagement at the meeting stating “It’s great to be part of this consultation process, to hear all the views of the people involved working to improve the competitions. I look forward to the next GBL season”.
The GBL Committee will take some time now to digest and work through the feedback collected during the meeting and start to formulate resolutions on how to proceed for the coming season.
Due to the lockdown of Greater Brisbane implemented by the Qld Government, subject to any further Qld Government directions; the following GBL Grand Finals will be postponed to Thursday, 1st April 2021.
Division 1 – Game 3 Division 1 Grand Finals Series – Windsor Royals v Redcliffe Padres Red at Pine Hills – Game starts at 7.30pm
Masters North – Narangba Demons v Redcliffe Padres at Narangba – Game starts at 7.00pm
Masters South – Ipswich Musketeers Blue v Redlands Rays at Southern Stars – Game starts at 7.00pm
The Queensland Government advise that a three day lock down will be in place from 5pm this evening (Monday 29/3).
BREAKING: Greater Brisbane will go into a three-day lockdown and restrictions will come into place across Queensland after cases of COVID-19 transmission were detected in the community.
From 5pm today, residents in the local government areas of Brisbane, Ipswich, Moreton Bay, Logan and Redlands can only leave home for one of these four reasons:
1. To buy essentials such as groceries or medications
2. Work or study if you can’t do either from home
3. Exercise in your local area
4. Healthcare or to provide help, care or support
Residents of these areas must also wear masks indoors except at home, including in ride shares, on public transport and in workplaces.
Cafés, pubs and restaurants will be open only for take-away service.
Schools in the locked down areas will remain open for children of essential workers.
For the rest of Queensland, masks should be worn while indoors outside of the home and private gatherings are restricted to 30 people.
To keep our most vulnerable Queenslanders safe, aged care, correctional centres, hospitals and disability service providers will close to visitors across the state.
The restrictions will be reviewed on Wednesday evening.
These measures are tough, but they are important to keep our community safe.
#covid19
The remaining GBL finals will be impacted by this lockdown and the GBL committee are currently working through contingency plans. Further details will be released once the committee have finalised their revised plans.
All baseball facilities in the locked down areas are to be considered as closed for the duration of the lockdown.
For advice on where to wear a mask during the lockdown please see this link>>>https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/protect-yourself-others/face-masks
For the latest COVID related Queensland Government updates please visit this link>>>https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/current-status/urgent-covid-19-update
