Gaelic Football

Overview

Ireland's national field game. Fifteen a side on a big pitch, with H-shaped goals, played with a round ball using hands and feet.

Checked against the GAA's Official Guide, Part 2, effective from 27 March 2026. Rule numbers below refer to its Gaelic football chapter unless marked otherwise. The playing rules were overhauled for 2025, so older guides and articles are often wrong.

1. The basics

Fifteen a side: a goalkeeper and fourteen outfield players (Specification 2.1). The pitch is 130–145 m long and 80–90 m wide (Specification 1.1).

Matches are two halves of 30 minutes, or 35 minutes in inter-county senior championship and league games (Specification 3.2).

The ball weighs 480–500 g with a circumference of 68–70 cm (Specification 4.4). A mouth guard is mandatory in all games and practice (Specification 4.3).

2. Scoring

How	Value
Goal: under the crossbar	3 points
Point: over the crossbar	1 point
Two-pointer: over the bar, kicked from on or outside the 40 m arc	2 points

The two-pointer counts from a free, a Solo and Go, or open play, as long as the kicker had at least one foot on or outside the arc and no teammate touched the ball after it. A score from a 45 is only ever one point (3.1).

You can't carry the ball over the goal line, or throw or hand it into the net, but you can fist or palm a point (3.1).

Scores are written goals-points: 1-12 is one goal and twelve points, 15 in all.

3. Handling the ball

When you have the ball you may (1.4):

• carry it for four steps, or hold it for as long as four steps take;
• toe-tap it: drop it to your foot and back into your hands (the "solo");
• bounce it once, and once more after each toe-tap;
• kick it, or pass it with a fist or an open hand with a definite underhand striking action.

You can't throw the ball or hand-pass it without striking it (4.2).

You can't pick the ball up off the ground with your hands. Lift it with your feet (1.2). The exceptions: the goalkeeper in their small rectangle, and a player who falls in possession may fist or palm it away.

4. Tackling and fouls

You may tackle for the ball (1.6), and make a shoulder-to-shoulder charge with at least one foot on the ground, on a player who has the ball, or when you're both going for it (1.7). You can't charge the goalkeeper in the small rectangle.

Cynical fouls earn a black card, ten minutes in the sin bin (5.10–5.16): deliberately pulling down or tripping an opponent, a deliberate late collision, holding an opponent up, joining a melee as the third player or later, aggressively remonstrating with an official, or abusive language or gestures.

Denying a goal-scoring opportunity by a black-card foul earns a penalty and the black card together.

Striking, kicking or spitting at an opponent, or dangerous play, are more serious fouls still (5.17–5.20).

The small rectangle: an attacker may not enter it in open play before the final pass into it, or in set play before the ball does (4.9).

5. Is there an offside rule?

No. Instead, a team must keep at least four players (the goalkeeper can count) in its own half and at least three outfield players in the opposition half at all times (2.14). A breach isn't penalised if it's unintentional, within 4 m of halfway, and not affecting play.

6. Restarts

Situation	Restart
Over the sideline	Sideline kick from the hands, from outside the line (2.9)
Wide, or a score	Kick-out from the ground at the centre of the 20 m line (2.7)
Foul	Free kick where the foul happened, from the hands or the ground (2.5)
Aggressive foul in the large rectangle, or any foul in the small rectangle	Penalty from 11 m (2.2, 2.4)

The kick-out must travel outside the 40 m arc and the 20 m line before another defending player touches it (2.7).

Solo and Go: a player awarded a free may restart at once by soloing, within 4 m of the foul, without waiting for the referee (2.5–2.6).

7. The mark

The referee awards a mark for (2.12):

• a kick-out mark: a clean catch from a kick-out, on or past the 45 m line nearest the kick-out; or
• an advanced mark: a clean catch on or inside the 20 m line, from a kick by a teammate on or beyond the opponents' 45 m line.

Raise an arm to take a free from the hands, within 15 seconds, with opponents 13 m back. Or play on straight away.

8. Cards

Card	Effect
Yellow	Caution
Black	Ten minutes in the sin bin
Red	Sent off for the rest of the game

A black card for a player already on a yellow is followed by a red (5.10–5.16).

Commonly argued

• There's no offside. The rule is four back and three up.
• Two-pointers count from frees too, but never from a 45.
• You can't pick the ball up with your hands.
• One bounce, then you must toe-tap before bouncing again.
• The hand pass must be struck, not thrown.
• The kick-out must clear the 40 m arc.
• Sideline kicks are from the hands now, not the ground.