Gaelic football

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Image:Irish Stamp GAA Gaelic Football.jpg

Gaelic football (Irish: peil ghaelach) is a form of football played mainly in Ireland. Teams of 15 players kick or punch a round ball towards goals at either end of a grass pitch.

1 Origins
2 Appearance
3 Rules
4 Leagues and Team structure
5 The All Ireland Final
6 Recent Winners of GAA All-Ireland Football Championships
7 See also
8 External links

Origins

Though it has existed for centuries, it was formally arranged into an organised playing code by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in the late nineteenth century. Although there are similarities with Australian Rules Football, this appears to be due to convergent evolution rather than conscious influence of one code on the other, although the precise connections between the games are unclear. International Rules matches are now organised between Irish and Australian representative sides, using a hybrid of the two codes.

The female version of the game has become increasingly popular since the 1970s.

Appearance

At first glance Gaelic Football resembles a combination of soccer and basketball. Players advance the ball up the field with a combination of carrying, kicking, and hand-passing to their team-mates. Some plays include a ducking and weaving movement where the player in posession will run towrds an opponent, and at the last minute change direction after wrong-footing the defender. Passing takes place to players on the run, so rather than passing directly to a team-mate, players will pass the ball into mid-air just ahead of the receiving player so that he can run into it. The scoring system adds another dimension to the game. If a team has a two-point deficit in the dying minutes of a match, they will start to try to get in closer to the goal and create a goal-scoring opportunity. As well as the high speed and frequent scoring, it is the unpredictable nature of the game, in that there are so many different ways to deliver the ball, that appeals to fans.

Rules

The pitch is of grass and rectangular, 150 metres long and 80–90 metres wide. There are H-shaped goalposts at each end with a net on the bottom section. The same pitch is used for hurling; the GAA, which organises both sports, decided this to facilitate dual usage.

Teams consist of fifteen players plus up to fifteen substitutes, of which six may be used. Each player is numbered 1-15, starting with the goalkeeper.

Image:GAA Pitch Positions.jpg

The game is played with a round leather ball, similar to a soccer ball, but heavier. It may be kicked or punched, but not thrown. Players must not carry the ball more than four steps unless they kick it to themselves (called soloing) or bounce it; it must not be bounced twice in succession. Players may not pick the ball directly off the ground (During the National League campaign of 2004/5 an experimental rule allowed players to pick the ball from the ground directly from an upright position but not when on their knees or lower.).

If the ball goes over the crossbar, a point is scored. If the ball goes below the crossbar, a goal, worth three points, is scored. The goal is guarded by a goalkeeper. Scores are recorded in the format {goal total} - {point total}. For example, the 1991 All-Ireland semi-final finished: Meath 0-15 Roscommon 1-11. Thus Meath won "fifteen points to one-eleven" (1-11 being worth 14 points).

The level of tackling allowed is more robust than in soccer, but less than rugby: shoulder-charging is permitted, grappling is not. The rule has attracted criticism as being too vague, producing inconsistent interpretations between different referees.

Leagues and Team structure

All Gaelic sports are amateur except within certain Dublin clubs. Some high-profile footballers such as Kieran McGeeney (Geezer) are rumoured to be pocketing between 50 - 55000 euros per year on the back of this amateur organisation.

The basic unit of each game is organised at the club level, which is usually arranged on a parish basis, with various local clubs playing to win the County Championship at various levels:

Senior: the better adult clubs
Junior: weaker adult clubs, from small communities
Under-21
Minor: under-18
Underage: all ages from under-16 down to under-9

On a national level, the team is organised on the old Irish county system ¹, producing 34 teams representing the original 32 counties that cover the island of Ireland, plus teams representing the Irish diaspora in London and New York. There are also clubs in other parts of Britain, Asia, Australia, continental Europe and Canada (see ClubGAA link at bottom). Though Ireland was partitioned into two states in 1920, Gaelic sports (like most cultural organisations and all religions) continue to be organised on an all-island basis. A team of 15 players plus substitutes is formed from the best players playing at parish level. All counties play against each other in a knockout tournament known as the All Ireland Championship. These knockout games are organised on the four Irish provinces of Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht. In the past, the best team from each would play one of the others, at a stage known as the All-Ireland semi-finals, with the winning team from each game playing each other in the All-Ireland Final. A recent re-organisation now provides a 'back door' method of qualifying, with knocked out teams getting another chance to win back into the competition.

County teams also compete in the National Football League, held every spring. The League is not as prestigious as the All-Ireland, but in recent years attendances have grown and interest, from the public and from players, have grown. This is due in part to the organisation of the league into the above format, the provision of the Division 2 final stages and the relatively new change of starting the league in February rather than November. Live matches are shown on the Irish-language TV station TG4, with highlights shown on RTE2.

The All Ireland Final

The final game of the inter-county series is the All Ireland Final which takes place on the fourth Sunday of September in Croke Park. Before 1999, the final was held on the third Sunday of the month, but this custom was changed due to an overloaded schedule of matches.

Over a series of weeks, All Ireland Finals in men's football, women's football, hurling and camogie take place, each on a Sunday. Croke Park, the national stadium of the GAA, regularly attracts crowds of up to eighty thousand for the final phases of the competition.

Guests who attend include Uachtarán na hÉireann, an Taoiseach and leading dignitaries.

Two levels of the game are played at each All Ireland, the senior team and the minor team (consisting of younger players, usually under the age of 18, who have played their own Minor All Ireland competition.)

The winning senior male football team wins the Sam Maguire cup. The most successful county in the history of Gaelic football is Kerry, with 33 All-Ireland wins, followed by Dublin, with 22 wins.