Scorekeeping
How to write a GAA match report: the result, the scorers and the team lists
A GAA match report leads with the result written goals-points, such as Mayo 1-20 Kerry 1-17, then gives each team's scorers, highest first, with the kind of score in brackets: 0-5 (2 2pt, 1f) is two two-pointers and a free. Two-pointers count at their value in the points column. Team lists and substitutes, with the minute, close it.
Start with the result, written goals-points
The first line of a GAA match report is the result, and a Gaelic football or hurling score is written goals first, then points: Mayo 1-20 Kerry 1-17 is the 2026 All-Ireland football final as Munster GAA reported it. A goal is worth three points, so 1-20 is 23 and 1-17 is 20, and Mayo won by three. Only the total decides a game, so 2-10 (16) beats 0-15 (15) and 1-12 against 0-15 is a draw.
Since 2025 there is a third kind of score in men's football, and since 2026 in ladies football: two points for a kick over the bar from on or outside the 40 m arc. It has no column of its own. It goes into the points at its value, so the points column counts points, not kicks. Under the 2026 rule it counts two unless a player of the kicker's own team touches it on the way; a 45 is one point in men's football and two in ladies football. The Gaelic football score counter sets out what each kick is worth by code and year.
| Situation | Written as | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A win | Mayo 1-20 Kerry 1-17 | The 2026 final; every report cited here puts the winner first |
| With totals | Mayo 1-20 (23) Kerry 1-17 (20) | The bracket is the total in points |
| With the breakdown | Ballingeary 2-15 (2-5-5) | Goals, two-pointers, one-point scores |
| Half-time | Half-time: Kerry 1-8 Mayo 0-10 | A line of its own, or in the text |
| Extra time (example) | Home 2-18 Away 1-20 (aet) | Or "after extra time" in full |
| Shoot-out (example) | Home 1-15 Away 0-18, aet; Home won 3-2 on penalties | The score stays level; the shoot-out decides it |
| A draw (example) | Home 0-16 Away 1-13 | Level on 16 points, though the goals differ |
A shoot-out does not change the scoreline. Under the Central Council's Winner on the Day regulations, penalties are taken "for goals only", five a side, alternately and then sudden death, so a report gives the level score after extra time and the penalties after it.
The scorers line, and what 2pt, f and 45 mean
After the result, each team gets one line of scorers, highest scorer first, each with goals-points and the kind of score in brackets. This line from the Munster GAA report of the 2026 final shows the form:
Scorers for Mayo: Darragh Beirne 1-3 (2fs), Ryan O'Donoghue 0-5 (2 2pt, 1f), Jack Carney 0-4 (2 2pt), Kobe McDonald 0-3 (1 45), Tommy Conroy 0-2, David McBrien, Jordan Flynn, and Sam Callinan 0-1 each.
Read it as kicks, not just points. O'Donoghue's 0-5 is three scores: two two-pointers and a point from a free. Carney's 0-4 is two. Beirne's 1-3 is a goal and three points, two of them frees. Players with the same plain line are grouped at the end with "each".
| Mark | Means | Forms seen in the reports cited here |
|---|---|---|
| 2pt | A two-point score from play | 2 2pt (Munster GAA), 2 2ptr and 1-2pt (Irish Examiner), 2x2p (Wikipedia) |
| 2pt f | A two-point free | 1 2ptr f, 3 2pt free, 1-2ptf (Irish Examiner) |
| f | A point from a free | 1f, 2fs (Munster GAA), 0-1 f (Irish Examiner) |
| 45 | A point from a 45 (football) | 1 45 (Munster GAA), 0-1 45 (Irish Examiner) |
| 65 | A point from a 65 (hurling) | The same pattern: 1 65 |
| m | A point from a mark | Not in these reports; 1m is the score counter's form |
| sl | A point from a sideline kick or cut | Not in these reports; 1 sl is the score counter's form |
| pen | A goal from a penalty | Not in these reports; 1-0 pen is the score counter's form |
| each | Several players with the same plain line | 0-1 each (Munster GAA, Irish Examiner) |
There is no single house style. Munster GAA writes "2 2pt", the Irish Examiner "2 2ptr" in one report and "3 2pt free" in another, and Wikipedia "2x2p". Pick one form, say what it means once if the readers are new to it, and keep it. The thing that must be right is the count, because the bracket is the only place a reader can see how many kicks a player's points took.
A trap: 1-2pt is not a goal and two points
The Irish Examiner's report of Kanturk 1-19 (1-2-13) Beal Átha'n Ghaorthaidh 0-11 (0-2-7) (Cork SAFC, 25 July 2026) writes "G Bucinskas 1-4 (1-2pt)" and "I Walsh 0-2 (1-2pt)". Inside the bracket, "1-2pt" means one two-pointer, not one goal and two points: Walsh's 0-2 is a single kick, and his line has no goal. The hyphen that separates goals from points outside the bracket does a different job inside it. Writing your own report, "1 2pt" with a space cannot be misread.
Two formats you will see in the same week
Two Irish Examiner reports from the 2026 Cork county championships write the result with a three-part bracket: Ballingeary 2-15 (2-5-5), Aghabullogue 1-14 (1-1-12) and Buttevant 1-16 (1-5-6) Mitchelstown 2-12 (2-2-8). Here the bracket is not the total. It is goals, two-pointers and one-point scores: Ballingeary scored two goals, five two-pointers and five points, which is 6 + 10 + 5 = 21, the same as 2-15. Wikipedia's page for the All-Ireland final uses the bracket for the total, 1-20 (23). A one-number bracket is the total; three numbers are the breakdown. Writing your own report, use one and do not mix them.
How to keep the record during the game
Write down every score as it happens, with the scorer and the minute. A club PRO appeal from the Saffron Gael asks for exactly that: both team sheets, "a list of scorers names or number of the player scoring as the scores occur", "a time as to when the score came", and the half-time and full-time score. A record kept from memory after the final whistle is where the wrong scorer and the missing point come from.
- Follow the flags, not the scoreboard. The umpires signal a goal with a green flag, a point with a white one and, in football, two points with an orange flag, after the referee awards it (Rule 2.2 of the Rules of Control). Scoreboards get it wrong: in the 2025 All-Ireland hurling semi-final the Croke Park scoreboard counted a wide as a Tipperary point, and the GAA acknowledged "there was confusion over the final score".
- Note how each score came. Free, 45, mark, penalty or sideline; for a long kick, the colour of the flag. You cannot rebuild a bracket afterwards.
- Note the substitutions with the minute, and the half-time changes. They go at the end of the report.
- Write the half-time score down at half-time. It is the second number most readers want.
The official record is the referee's. The GAA Official Guide makes keeping "a record of scores, the names of players injured, replaced, substitutes taking part" a duty of the referee (Rules of Control 1.2(v)), whose report goes to the committee in charge with both team lists within three days of the game (1.6). A reporter's record is a second, unofficial one; when they disagree, the referee's report stands.
Team lists and substitutes
Team lists go at the end, in positional order with semicolons between the lines of the team. A Gaelic football or hurling team lines out 1; 3; 3; 2; 3; 3: goalkeeper; full-back line; half-back line; midfield; half-forward line; full-forward line. This is the Ballingeary team from the Irish Examiner report above, written that way:
BALLINGEARY: D Ó Coill; S Ó Donnchú, É Ó Duinnín, B Ó hArgáin; C Ó Duinnín, G Ó Laoire, N Ó Laoire; C Ó Loinsigh, D Ó Brian; Daire Ó Ceallacháin, S Ó Tuama, Diarmuid Ó Ceallacháin; D MacThomáis, B Seartan, D Seartain.
Subs: S Ó Muineacháin for D MacThomáis (ht inj), É Ó Céilleachair for N Ó Laoire (51).
Substitutes are written "A for B (minute)", with ht for a change at half-time and inj for an injury. Up to five substitutes may be used in normal time and three in extra time (Rule of Specification 2.3). Check the starting team against the list given to the referee, not a programme printed days earlier: the Guide says the names first appearing on that list are the team "unless otherwise clearly indicated" (2.4).
| Line | Positions | Numbers |
|---|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | Goalkeeper | 1 |
| Full-back line | Right corner-back, full-back, left corner-back | 2-4 |
| Half-back line | Right wing-back, centre-back, left wing-back | 5-7 |
| Midfield | Two midfielders | 8-9 |
| Half-forward line | Right wing-forward, centre-forward, left wing-forward | 10-12 |
| Full-forward line | Right corner-forward, full-forward, left corner-forward | 13-15 |
Cards go in the text where they shaped the game. A black card is ten minutes in the sin bin, a second caution or black card is a red, and a player sent off is out for the rest of the game, extra time included (Rules of Control 1.2(ix)).
Check that the sums add up
Before the report goes out, add up each team's scorers, every goal as three, and check the sum equals the team's total. If the result has a breakdown bracket, check that too: three times the goals, plus twice the two-pointers, plus the one-point scores, must equal the total. Mayo's scorers in the final add to 1-20:
| Scorer | Line | Goals | Two-pointers | One-point scores | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darragh Beirne | 1-3 (2fs) | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Ryan O'Donoghue | 0-5 (2 2pt, 1f) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Jack Carney | 0-4 (2 2pt) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Kobe McDonald | 0-3 (1 45) | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Tommy Conroy | 0-2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| McBrien, Flynn, Callinan | 0-1 each | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Mayo | 1-20 (23) | 1 | 4 | 12 | 23 |
The check that catches the most mistakes is the scorer count against the breakdown: four two-pointers here means the bracket form would be 1-4-12, and 3 + 8 + 12 = 23. A scorers line that adds to one more or one less than the result almost always means a two-pointer written as a point, or a point from a 45 counted as two in men's football, where a 45 is only ever one.
Hurling and ladies football
The report format is the same in every Gaelic game; the scores differ. Hurling has no two-point score under the 2026 Official Guide: every score over the bar is one point and a goal is three, so a hurling scorers line carries f, 65 and sl but no 2pt. Ladies football adopted the 40 m arc at a Special Congress on 15 April 2026, with the same teammate-touch rule as the men's game and one difference that changes a scorers line: a 45 over the bar is two points (LGFA motions, Motion 11), so a ladies football report can carry "1 2pt 45" where a men's report never would.
Simple Online Counter is a free browser-based counter site, and its Gaelic football score counter keeps the scorer, the minute and the kind of every score as the game is played, values each kick by the rules of the code chosen, and writes the result, the half-time score and both scorers lines in the munster.gaa.ie form. The counts stay in the browser and are never sent anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
How do you write a GAA score?
Goals first, then points, joined by a hyphen: 1-15 is one goal and fifteen points. A goal is worth three, so 1-15 is 18 in all, and some reports add the total in brackets, 1-15 (18). A two-point score is not a separate column: it adds two to the points, so 0-2 can be a single kick from outside the arc.
What does 2pt mean in GAA scores?
A two-point score: a kick over the bar by a player with at least one foot on or outside the 40 m arc, which the umpire signals with an orange flag. In a scorers line, 0-4 (2 2pt) means a player's four points came from two of them. Reports also write 2ptr, 2p or 2x2p, and 2pt f or 2pt free for a two-point free.
What does f mean in GAA scores?
A free. 0-3 (2f) means three points, two of them from frees; some reports write 2fs or 0-1 f. 45 marks a point from a 45 (a 65 in hurling) and 2pt a two-point score, so 0-6 (1 2pt, 2f, 1 45) is a two-pointer and four points, two of them frees and one a 45: five kicks in all.
What do the numbers in brackets after a GAA score mean?
It depends on the report. In 1-20 (23) the bracket is the total in points. In the Irish Examiner's 2-15 (2-5-5) it breaks the score down into goals, two-pointers and one-point scores: two goals, five two-pointers and five points, which is also 21. A three-part bracket is the breakdown; one number is the total.
What should a GAA match report include?
The competition and round, venue, the result with the half-time score, a few paragraphs on how the game was won, each team's scorers with the kind of score, both team lists in positional order, substitutions with the minute, and any cards that mattered. A club report adds who played well and the next fixture. Lead with the result, not the weather.
How do you list a Gaelic football team in a match report?
In positional order, goalkeeper first, with semicolons between the lines: goalkeeper; full-back line; half-back line; midfield; half-forward line; full-forward line, which gives the pattern 1; 3; 3; 2; 3; 3. Substitutes follow as "Subs: A for B (51)", the minute in brackets, with ht for half-time and inj for an injury.
How do you check a GAA scoreline adds up?
Turn every scorer's line into points, a goal as three, and add them: the sum must equal the team's total. Then check the breakdown: goals times three, plus twice the two-pointers, plus the one-point scores, must equal the total as well. In 2-15 (2-5-5), 6 + 10 + 5 = 21, and 2-15 is 6 + 15 = 21, so the line is consistent.
Who keeps the official score in a GAA match?
The referee. Rule 1.2(v) of the Rules of Control in the GAA Official Guide makes keeping "a record of scores" one of the referee's duties, and the referee's report, sent with both team lists to the committee in charge within three days, contains the result. The umpires signal scores with flags; a scoreboard and a club reporter's record are unofficial.