Comparison of Australian Rules Football and Gaelic Football - Gaining Possession

Gaining Possession

Both games begin with the ball in the air, whereas Australian rules has a bounce down and allows only two players to contest the bounce.

Both Gaelic football and Australian rules football are open contested and free flowing games.

The main difference is the awarding of a mark for any clean catch of over 15 metres in Australian rules, which results in a free kick or possession of the ball. This rule has never existed in Gaelic and is a fundamental difference between the two games. High marking or 'speckies' are one of the most important spectator attributes of Australian rules. In Gaelic football, regardless of a clean catch, a player must play on.

In Australian rules, when a ball is kicked out of bounds on the full, it is a free kick to the opposite team to the player who kicked the ball.

Australian rules allows picking the ball up directly off the ground whereas Gaelic football does not (the ball must only be picked up by foot).

Another key difference is that in Australian rules, tackling is allowed to either dispossess a player or cause the player to be caught holding the ball which results in a free kick. Gaelic football does not have such a rule.

Possession may change in different ways in both games:-

• When an umpire/referee awards a free kick to an opposition player
• Following an unsuccessful kick at goal.
• When an opposing player intercepts a pass.
• When the player in possession drops the ball and it is recovered by an opposition player.
• When the ball is wrestled from a player's possession

In both codes, tactical kicking is an important aspect of play.