Indoor Hurling Rules

Indoor Hurling will be played according to the same Hurling rules as specified in the GAA Official Guide Pt. 2, except for the superseding rules stated below:

General

  1. Playing numbers per side will be no more than 7 and determined according to the playing venue.
  2. All persons exposed to the playing area must wear helmets at all times while any match is underway.
  3. The wall surrounding the playing surface will be considered a part of that playing surface and players may utilize it for the same purposes as grass within standard Hurling rules created for outside play. Only sliotars that contact the netting above the walls (“boards”) will be regarded as having gone “out-of-bounds,” and any such play will be restarted with a free given to the opposing team.
  4. Match-day sliotars will be of the ‘high-vis’ fluorescent style preferably yellow.
  5. All periods of play will end at the buzzer signalling regular time has elapsed. The only exception will be if an offense resulting in a free occurs immediately before or at the buzzer. That free will be taken in accordance with the rule(s) below. The period is completed on a score dead ball, or turnover.

Restart of Play

Frees

  1. All frees are “indirect frees” – a player cannot score directly from a free.
  2. Any free awarded as a result of a player committing an infraction directly against another player (e.g. reckless play, tackling) must be taken by the affected player. Any free awarded from a technical infraction or as a result of the sliotar being played “out-of-bounds” by one team may be taken by any player of the opposing team.

Puckouts

  1. Puckouts must be taken by a player within 2 meters of the goal line. There are no restrictions on how far a puckout must travel or the distance other players must be from the individual taking the puckout. A puckout may not be blocked, hooked, or otherwise interfered with.
  2. Players cannot score directly from a puckout.
  3. A puckout that first strikes the flat portion of the opposite, far wall without contacting any other player or surface during its trajectory will be ruled a “wide ball” and result in a puckout given to the opposing team.

Infractions

  1. Technical or “On-the-ball” infractions (e.g. overcarrying, throwing the sliotar, playing the sliotar on the ground with your hand) will result in play restarted by a free given to the opposing team.
  2. “Reckless play” infractions will be assessed against a player who strikes, obstructs, impedes, pushes, or trips another player with their stick or any part of their body instead of playing the sliotar and will result in a Minor Penalty being assessed against the offending player, with play restarted by a free given to the opposing team. Please see “Penalties” for more information.

Contact

Allowable contact standard(s):

  1. As in standard Hurling, with a shoulder-to-shoulder tackle or when two players equally compete side-by-side for a sliotar in open play and are jostling each other in an attempt to knock the other off the ball or resulting in incidental contact.
    -Or-
  2. Two players competing for a sliotar along the wall (“boards”) and jostling or pressing against each other or resulting in incidental contact. Players may be “pressed”/”squeezed” against the wall (“boards”), but not tackled or hit against or into them.
  3. Any player who illegally tackles, hits, or charges another will receive a Major Penalty, with play restarted by a free given to the tackled player’s team. Depending on the nature of these tackles, referees may give disciplinary cards at their discretion. For contact occurring adjacent to or targeted at sending a player towards the wall (“boards”), please see “Boarding.” Please see “Penalties” for more information.
  4. Boarding is a penalty called when an offending player pushes, trips, or checks an opposing player violently into the wall (“boards”) of the playing area. Due to the likelihood of injury sustained by the player who was boarded, committing such an infraction will result in an automatic red card. Boarding is usually assessed when the targeted player is hit within 4–5 feet from and into the direction of the wall (“boards”).

Penalties

Committing any infraction listed as a Penalty will result in the player having committed the infraction being sent to the penalty box for 2 minutes (Minor) or 5 minutes (Major) and their team having to play “down” by as many of their players as are in the penalty box at any given time. The team with the greater number of players will be considered on the “Power Play.”

The player serving a penalty within the box may return to play upon:

  1. Serving the full duration of the given penalty
    -Or-
  2. If the team on the Power Play scores 3 goals for a Minor or 6 goals for a Major while the player who committed that infraction is serving their penalty.

Substitutions

  1. Substitutions may occur at any time during a match and are executed by the player entering play handing their team’s baton to the player leaving play. Players actively holding batons are to be regarded as “out-of-play” and may not directly affect any part of a match in-progress aside from executing the substitution and must make their way to or from their team’s bench as quickly as possible. Batons must be handed off. Throwing a baton will result in a minor penalty being assessed against the thrower.
  2. If play has stopped, a player in the penalty box may be joined by a substitute with their team’s baton so that a substitution may be made immediately at that penalty’s conclusion, with the substitute reentering play in place of the offending player, who must make their way to their team’s bench as quickly as possible.
  3. In the event a playing team features extra substitutes that are members of another team, no more than one such member of a different team may be in play at a time or the playing team forfeits the match. In the event a match is forfeit, the teams are still expected to play despite the result having been concluded.