{"id":98352,"date":"2025-10-02T04:22:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/98352\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T04:22:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:22:13","slug":"explained-the-3-big-gaa-rule-changes-proposed-for-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/98352\/","title":{"rendered":"Explained: The 3 Big GAA Rule Changes Proposed For 2026 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The GAA will hold a Special Congress on Sunday, with delegates set to vote on a number of recommendations from the Football Rules Committee (FRC) that could see some changes made to the rulebook ahead of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

With the success of the rule changes introduced this year, the FRC are suggesting some further tweaks to the game. Some of them are fairly minuscule, while others could have a sizeable impact on Gaelic football moving forward.<\/p>\n

The full range of motions to be voted on can be found here<\/a>, but we have identified some of the key potential GAA rule changes below.<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:\u00a0<\/strong>Patrick Horgan Explains How Cork Players Were Let Down By County Board After Final Loss<\/a><\/p>\n

READ ALSO:\u00a0<\/strong>Brian Fenton Thinks GAA Should Learn One Big Lesson From NFL Dublin Game<\/a><\/p>\n

The 3 Big GAA Rule Changes The FRC Are Proposing For 2026<\/strong>
\n1. Hooter change<\/strong><\/p>\n

The hooter law caused some controversy during this summer’s championship, with some believing that the manner in which teams were holding the ball for a final shot took away from the spectacle on offer.<\/p>\n

It has now been recommended that the hooter rule return to something close to its original interpretation. This means that half will now end once the hooter sounds, unless the ball is in flight, or a free-kick, 45′, or sideline ball is due to be taken.<\/p>\n

Congress will not vote on those specific changes, but instead whether to keep the hooter on a permanent basis. How the hooter rules are enforced will then be decided by Central Council.<\/p>\n

2. Tweak to two-pointers<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Under the current rules, two-pointers are only awarded if the ball travels directly over the bar after the shot from an attacking player. If the ball is touched by a member of the opposition, it will only count as one point.<\/p>\n

This caused some confusion during the inter-county season, most notably when Galway goalkeeper Connor Gleeson tipped an effort from Mayo’s Ryan O’Donoghue over the bar during the Connacht final.<\/p>\n

Now, shots from outside the arc would only not count as two-pointers if they are touched by a players from the same team.<\/p>\n

3. Cynical jersey pull now punishable by black card \/penalty<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Recommended\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In an effort to further stamp out cynical play, it has been suggested that intentionally pulling an opposition player’s jersey to deny a goalscoring opportunity will now result in a black card for the offending player and a penalty to the attacking team.<\/p>\n

This suggestion has already stirred quite a bit of debate, with Ois\u00edn McConville believing that it has the potential to unfairly punish defenders<\/a> at a time when they are already being placed under quite a bit of pressure by officials.<\/p>\n

Others<\/strong><\/p>\n

The three rules mentioned above are just some of the motions that will be voted on this weekend. Here are a selection of others to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n

Stricter punishment for breaking throw-in rule<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under a new proposal, any player who moves from the 45-metre line or sideline before the referee throws the ball in to start each half will see a free awarded to the opposition on the halfway line.<\/p>\n

If there are offending players on each team, the throw-in will be retaken.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Expansion of black card\/penalty rule into other levels<\/strong><\/p>\n

As things stand, the use of the black card\/penalty punishment is only applied at inter-county level.<\/p>\n

Under this proposal, that law would also be brought into the club game.<\/p>\n

Frees awarded for ‘disruptive conduct’ on sideline<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a move that would further curb abuse directed at officials, it is proposed that ‘disruptive conduct’ by team officials will now be penalised by awarding a 13-metre free to the opposition team.<\/p>\n

It is essentially an expansion of the dissent laws that currently apply to players on the field.<\/p>\n

Incorrect dead ball placement punishment<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this motion, it is recommended that if a player ‘deliberately’ advances the ball from the correct spot for a free or sideline kick, or steps over the line when taking a sideline kick, a free will be given to the opposition.<\/p>\n

This would be a change from the current law, which would instead award a hop ball in such scenarios.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO:\u00a0Ois\u00edn McConville Hammers ‘Nonsense’ Suggested Change To GAA Black Card Rule<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The GAA will hold a Special Congress on Sunday, with delegates set to vote on a number of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,5286,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-98352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-gaa","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}