This weekend, I watched an Irish friend’s team play Gaelic Football:
Gaelic Football can be described as a mixture of soccer and rugby, although it predates both of those games. It is a field game which has developed as a distinct game similar to the progression of Australian Rules. Indeed it is thought that Australian Rules evolved from Gaelic Football through the many thousands who were either deported or emigrated to Australia from the middle of the nineteenth century. Gaelic Football is played on a pitch approximately 137m long and 82m wide. The goalposts are the same shape as on a rugby pitch, with the crossbar lower than a rugby one and slightly higher than a soccer one.The ball used in Gaelic Football is round, slightly smaller than a soccer ball. It can be carried in the hand for a distance of four steps and can be kicked or “hand-passed”, a striking motion with the hand or fist. After every four steps the ball must be either bounced or “solo-ed”, an action of dropping the ball onto the foot and kicking it back into the hand. You may not bounce the ball twice in a row. To score, you put the ball over the crossbar by foot or hand/fist for one point or under the crossbar and into the net by foot or the hand/fist in certain circumstances for a goal, the latter being the equivalent of three points.
There are so many variations of football (soccer, rugby union, rugby league, American football, Canadian football, Aussie rules, and Gaelic football), and they all struggle to come up with the right mix of rules. Gaelic rules seemed to provide good action, but I have to admit that the mandatory “solo-ing” seemed odd and arbitrary.