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Gaelic football rules, updated for the 2026 season
The basic rules of Gaelic football are short. Fifteen players a side catch, kick, carry, bounce and solo a round ball, and pass it by striking it with the hand, never by throwing. A goal under the crossbar is worth 3; a point over it is worth 1, or 2 if kicked from on or outside the 40 metre arc.
Facts checked on against the GAA Official Guide Part 2 (April 2026 edition).
We work from the GAA Official Guide Part 2, April 2026 edition; rule numbers refer to its football section. The page starts with what changed in 2025 and 2026, because that is where older guides to the rules of Gaelic football go wrong.
What GAA rules changed in 2026?
The Football Review Committee trialled new rules through 2025. On 4 October 2025 a Special Congress passed all 62 motions, and the new GAA rules have been permanent since 1 January 2026 (GAA). These ten are the changes you notice from the stand.
| Rule | Before 2025 | From 2026 | What you notice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-point score | Every point worth 1 | A kick over the bar from on or outside the 40 m arc is worth 2 | Long-range shooting, and leads that vanish fast |
| Players in each half | No rule | At least 4 in own half (keeper may count), at least 3 outfield players in the opposition half | Nobody parks 15 players behind the ball |
| Kick-out | At least 13 m and past the 20 m line | Must travel outside the 40 m arc and the 20 m line | No more short kick-outs to a corner-back |
| Back pass to goalkeeper | Allowed in general play | Only inside the large rectangle, or when the keeper is in the opposition half | The keeper stops being a safe outlet |
| Solo and Go | Did not exist | A fouled player can toe-tap and play on at once | Quicker restarts after a foul |
| Advanced mark | Catch inside the 45 m line | Catch on or inside the opposition 20 m line | Long kicks into the forwards pay off |
| Throw-in | Two players from each team | One from each team; the second pair wait on the sidelines | A cleaner contest at the start of each half |
| Dissent at a free | Ball moved 13 m | Ball moved 50 m | Arguing with the referee can hand over a scoring chance |
| Black card plus penalty | Senior, U20, minor and junior inter-county only | All levels, club included | Cynical fouls near goal cost the same everywhere |
| End of each half | No hooter rule in the 2024 table of rules we compared | Public clock and hooter where available; the hooter ends the half at once, with exceptions | Everyone in the ground knows when time is up |
"Before" is the 2024 Official Guide Part 2. The hooter is governed by Central Council regulation, as reported by RTÉ and the Irish Examiner.
If you only learn two of these, learn the arc and the positional rule. They explain most of what looks different about the 2026 game. The February 2026 Annual Congress left the playing rules alone; its 25 motions covered other business, such as replays for drawn provincial football finals (GAA).
Can you kick the ball in Gaelic football?
Yes. Kicking is the main way to pass and score, and you can kick the ball from your hands or straight off the ground. While the ball is in the air you can play it with any part of your body, head included (Rule 1.3).
Two things are off limits: throwing it, and picking it up off the ground with your hands.
How to play Gaelic football: moving the ball
Take four steps with the ball, then bounce it or solo it before the next four (Rule 1.4). A solo, or toe-tap, means dropping the ball onto your foot and flicking it back into your hands on the run.
Bounces are rationed. One after you catch the ball, and one after each solo. Bounce twice in a row after catching it and the referee gives a free against you (Rule 4.6).
A hand pass has to be a strike. Use your fist, or an open hand with a definite underhand striking action (Rule 1.4). If the ball simply leaves your hand without that strike, the rule book calls it a throw, and a throw is a foul.
The ground is the other trap for newcomers. A ball lying on the grass cannot be lifted with the hands; you get your foot under it and flick it up (Rule 1.2). There are two exceptions: a goalkeeper inside their own small rectangle, and a player knocked to the ground with the ball, who may fist or palm it away.
One smaller rule: you can move the ball from one hand to the other once. Bounce or solo it and you may do it again.
Can you pass the ball back to the goalkeeper?
Only in two places. A team-mate can pass to the goalkeeper when both of them are inside the large rectangle, or when the goalkeeper is in the opposition half (Rule 1.10). A pass back to a keeper outside the large rectangle in their own half is a foul and gives away a free (Rule 4.34).
Rule 4.34, which sets the free, words the large-rectangle case differently: a pass to a keeper inside the large rectangle is a foul unless an opposing player played the ball into the rectangle. The two rules do not match word for word, and the Official Guide does not say which one prevails.
Until 2025 there was no limit at all, and teams could recycle the ball through the keeper whenever they liked. Much of the change in the goalkeeper's job starts there.
How many players must stay in each half?
At least four in your own half, and the goalkeeper can be one of them, plus at least three outfield players in the opposition half. This is the rule as the April 2026 Official Guide words it:
"During play, a team must have at least four players (which may include the goalkeeper) in their half of the field and at least three outfield players in the opposition half of the field."Official Guide Part 2 (April 2026), Rule 2.14
You will hear it called the “3 up” rule, or 4v3. You will also find a different version in the GAA's own explainer from January 2025: "a minimum of 3 outfield players in each half", with the goalkeeper not counting. That was the trial wording, and it is out of date.
The difference shows when the keeper goes upfield. Under the trial wording, a keeper who ran upfield could leave three outfield players behind. Under the current rule the team still needs four in its own half, so a fourth outfield player has to hold back.
Referees do not whistle every stray step. There is no breach if the player got there unintentionally, is within 4 metres of halfway, and is not interfering with play, bothering an opponent or gaining an advantage (Rule 2.14). When it is a breach, the other team gets a free (Rules 4.35 and 4.36):
- from the spot where the player crossed halfway, if they broke the rule while carrying, receiving or intercepting the ball;
- otherwise from the centre of the offending team's 20 metre line, or, if the opponents prefer, from any point outside the 40 metre arc, where a score is worth two. A lazy positional slip can gift the other side a free shot at two points.
Can you tackle in Gaelic football?
Yes, but a Gaelic football tackle is aimed at the ball, not the player. The rule book defines it as a way to dispossess an opponent within the rules of fair play (Definition 22). In practice you can flick the ball out of an opponent's hand with an open hand, or make a shoulder-to-shoulder charge with at least one foot on the ground.
Definition 22 lists what is not allowed: punching, slapping, arm holding, pushing, tripping, jersey pulling and a full frontal charge. The goalkeeper cannot be charged at all inside the small rectangle.
The rule book sorts fouls into three kinds (Definition 8). Technical fouls break the ball-handling rules: overcarrying, throwing, double bouncing, entering the square early. Aggressive fouls run from holding and pushing up to striking, and dissent is arguing with an official.
Cards and the black card rules
A yellow card is a caution. A black card sends a player to the sin bin for 10 minutes. A player shown a red card is off for the rest of the game, extra time included, with no replacement (Rules of Control 1.2, Rules of Specification 2.5).
Any two cautionable offences make a red: two yellows, a yellow and a black, or two blacks. The sin bin clock runs through stoppages, and any time left at full time carries into extra time.
The black card is for cynical play. In 2026 that means (Rules 5.10 to 5.16):
- a deliberate pull-down, trip or collision
- holding up an opponent so they cannot move or play the ball
- joining a melee as the third player or later
- aggressive remonstration with an official
- abusive or provocative language or gestures towards an opponent or team-mate
Two of those are new: holding up an opponent was not a black card offence before 2025, and joining a melee used to be a red.
A cynical foul that denies a goal chance costs a penalty and a black card, and since 2026 that includes deliberately pulling a jersey (Rule 5.41). The sanction used to stop at inter-county level; it now reaches club football too (GAA).
Some punishments move the ball instead of the player. Dissent at a free, or a foul committed to waste time, sends the free 50 metres closer to goal (Rules 5.42 and 6.4). And only the captain, or a nominated deputy if the captain is the goalkeeper or has left the field, may ask the referee about a decision, during a break in play (Rule 1.11).
Restarts: how play starts again
How play restarts depends on how it stopped. There are six restarts, plus the mark, which rewards a clean catch.
Throw-in
Each half starts with the referee throwing the ball up between one player from each team. A second player from each side waits on opposite sidelines at halfway, and they swap sides at half-time. Everyone else stays behind the 45 metre lines (Rule 2.1).
Kick-out
After a wide or a score, the defending team kicks the ball from the ground at the centre of its 20 metre line, with a tee if it likes. The ball must go outside the 40 metre arc and the 20 metre line before a team-mate plays it. Every other player, from both teams, stays at least 13 metres from the ball until it is kicked (Rule 2.7).
Free kick and Solo and Go
A free is taken from the hands or off the ground, with opponents 13 metres back. Since 2025 the fouled player has a faster option, the Solo and Go: toe-tap the ball straight away, within 4 metres of the foul, and play on. Nobody may challenge within those 4 metres, and it cannot be used inside the opposition 20 metre line (Rule 2.5).
Sideline kick
Ball over the sideline? The other team kicks it back in from the hands, from outside the line where it crossed (Rule 2.9).
45
If a defender plays the ball over their own endline outside the posts, the attackers take a free kick from the ground on the 45 metre line opposite that spot (Rule 2.8). Put it over the bar and it counts one point.
Penalty
Taken from the ground, 11 metres out. You concede one for an aggressive foul inside the large rectangle, any foul inside the small rectangle, or a cynical foul that denies a goal chance (Rules 2.2 and 5.41).
The mark
A clean catch in the right place earns a free kick. Catch a kick-out on or beyond the 45 metre line nearest the kicker and it is a kick-out mark; catch a long kick on or inside the opposition 20 metre line, sent in by a team-mate from on or beyond the opposition 45, and it is an advanced mark (Rule 2.12).
Either way, the catcher raises an arm and has 15 seconds to take the kick, or can play on.
Referee and umpire signals
The Official Guide describes only a handful of signals in its text. These are the ones it sets out, for the referee and for the two umpires at each goal (Rules of Control 1.2 and 2.2, Rules 2.13 and 5.42):
- One pointReferee extends one arm above the head.
- Two pointsReferee extends both arms above the head.
- Clock stoppedReferee crosses both hands overhead and blows the whistle.
- Ball moved 50 mReferee extends either arm sideways.
- Wide (umpire)Umpire crosses both arms above the head.
- 45 (umpire)Umpire raises an arm, then points infield where the ball crossed the endline.
- Score flagsUmpire raises green for a goal, white for a point, orange for a two-point score.
- Score disallowedUmpire crosses the flags at the centre of the scoring space.
Advantage looks like the one-point signal at first glance: an arm raised upright. The difference is that the referee holds it there for as long as the advantage runs (Rule 2.13). Everyday gestures for overcarrying or a throw are not in the Official Guide, so we have not drawn them.
When does a half end?
In 2026 the hooter ends each half at once. A ball already in the air when it sounds can still score, and a free already awarded can still be taken as a direct shot. The full wording, with half-time and extra time, is in our guide to how long a match lasts.
Frequently asked questions
What are the new Gaelic football rules for 2026?
The headline two are the two-point score and the rule that keeps players in both halves. Kick-outs are longer, back passes to the keeper are limited, and a fouled player can take a quick Solo and Go.
Is tackling allowed in Gaelic football?
Yes, on the ball only. Flicking it from an opponent's hand or a fair shoulder charge is fine. A deliberate pull-down, trip or hold-up earns a black card.
Are you allowed to head the ball in Gaelic football?
Yes. A ball in the air can be played with any part of the body.
Is there offside in Gaelic football?
No. There is no offside rule in the Official Guide. Two rules limit where attackers can stand instead: the square ball rule, which keeps them out of the small rectangle until the ball arrives, and the requirement to keep players in both halves.
What is the square ball rule in Gaelic football?
An attacker may not be inside the opposition's small rectangle before the ball gets there. In open play the moment that counts is the final play of the ball into the rectangle; at a set piece it is when the ball enters. Break it and the defending team gets a free (Rule 4.9).
What is the "mark" rule in Gaelic football?
A clean catch of a kick-out on or beyond the 45 metre line nearest the kicker, or of a kick from a team-mate on or beyond the opposition 45 caught on or inside the opposition 20 metre line, earns a free kick. You raise an arm and have 15 seconds to kick it from the hands, or you play on.
What is the 3 up rule in GAA?
The popular name for Rule 2.14. A team must always keep at least three outfield players in the opposition half and four players, the goalkeeper allowed, in its own half.