Groningen Gaels

We are a brand new sports club in Groningen founded in September 2018 and we currently have close to 50 members. Gaelic Football is an Irish sport and one of the fastest growing sports in Europe. People sometimes describe Gaelic Football a mixture of a lot of sports. You can punch pass the ball like a volleyball serve, you can hop the ball like in a basketball game, you can kick goals like soccer and you can punt kick the ball like Australian rules football. Gaelic football is unique sport. In a full Gaelic football match, you play two halves of 35 minutes on a big rectangular pitch usually 140 metres by 80 metres so there is lots of space to move around the pitch. There are no offsides in Gaelic and teams are made up of one goalkeeper, six defenders, two midfielders and six forwards. The goalposts are like rugby goalposts only that the goal has a net and is protected by the goalkeeper like in soccer.

The game is played with a round ball. Kicking the ball over the goal and between the posts is one point and kicking the ball in the net past the goalkeeper is 3 points. To pass the you can either do a punt kick or a hand pass which involves punching the ball with the palm of your hand. Throwing the ball is not allowed. When running with the ball you can take four steps between each play. After the four steps you can either hop the ball or solo the ball (a kick pass to yourself). It is a contact sport and shoulder to shoulder contact is permitted but rugby style tackling is not permitted. If the ball is on the ground, you are not allowed to pick it directly off the ground you must put your foot underneath the ball. This is called “the pickup”. If there is a foul a free kick is awarded. Penalties are also awarded if a player is fouled inside the goalkeeper’s box. And you have learned Gaelic football!

We welcome all nationalities and we are a very social club looking to grow! We train every week and have matches monthly!