I got really into GAA, the collective term for Gaelic Football, Hurling, Camogie and some other sports, a couple of years ago, having watched soccer and rugby for years. I’ve been to a few Gaelic Football and Hurling matches, watched quite a lot on TV and followed debates online.
Gaelic Football (GF from hereon) is indeed close to Australian Rules - Irish GF players regularly turn professional and go to Australia to play Rules. Hurling’s nearest cousin would be shinty in Scotland, but they’re not that similar and since there are far fewer shinty teams and players in Scotland there isn’t the same crossover that there is between GF and Rules. They do have composite rules, so that Ireland can play Australia at a GF/Rules hybrid, and Ireland can play Scotland at a hurling/shinty hybrid, but the Irish take the Australia games a lot more seriously.
GF and Hurling are played on the same pitch with the same goal posts - I think they made that decision in the 19th century on pragmatic grounds. The pitch is huge compared with rugby and soccer. The games are very fast, constantly going from end to end, and so the match is shorter than the other sports, 70 minutes at the top level.
Both games score 3 points for a goal, which is getting the ball into the net between the posts and under the bar, or 1 point for between the posts and over the bar. Most scoring is done with single points, especially in top level hurling where players can score from 70 or 80 yards out. The match score is still given as, eg, 2-12 to 1-16, which works out as 18-19. I don’t know why they do this, rugby and American football stopped doing it in the 19th century. The relative number of goals never has any bearing on the result, it’s never used to separate teams that are drawing at the end of a championship match.
I don’t think Gaelic Football is at all close to rugby. I will defer to any Irish people who think I’m talking crap, but despite superficial appearances I think it’s closer to soccer.
In GF, like soccer, you have to tackle the ball not the man - you’re not allowed to put your arms round a player and bring them down like you can in rugby or American Football. After watching many games I still can’t tell a fair tackle from a foul one in GF, you perhaps have to have played the game to really understand how the tackle works in GF. As in soccer, you’re allowed to go shoulder to shoulder with an opponent who has the ball, but permitted shouldering is much more robust in GF.
In GF you’re not allowed to throw the ball like you can in rugby - you have to “hand pass”, which means holding it in one hand and punching it with the other. You’re not allowed to run with the ball like you can in rugby, you need to bounce it or keep punting it to yourself. Rugby’s offside and forward pass rules really restrict what a team can do with the ball - neither of these apply in GF. There is no equivalent of the scrum, ruck or maul in GF, and when a team is getting the ball forward with hand passes and kick passes, they’re looking for players in space like in soccer. Marking opponents is closer to soccer than rugby. GF and Hurling have no offside rule at all, except that an attacker is not allowed to stand in a very small area next to the goal when a team mate is passing to them. The penalty in GF is almost exactly the same as in soccer, except that you do have the option between going for 3 points into the net, or 1 point over the bar.
The vast majority of scoring in GF is done with punting the ball between the posts and over the bar. You can’t score with a punt in rugby, the ball has to be drop kicked.
