Yank here. I get much of my football information from the Guardian’s football page and its discussion threads. From time to time, mostly in the comments rather than articles, I see the term “agricultural football” used, usually describing play during a given game. It’s always used in a pejorative sense, and I infer that it has to do with an older style of British football (?). I find the term colorful and wonderfully descriptive (if only I could know what it actually meant), and it amuses me because I grew up on a farm.
I’ve done Internet searches of the term and get instances of use but no outright definition. Does agricultural football refer to a team’s outdated strategy/tactics, such as long ball, kick and rush, trying to lob the ball to the classic big bloke in the box? Those strategies can be deemed “agricultural” in that they’re antiquated, “pre-modern,” brutish, something from the past. Or does it have to do with a rough, physical, possibly dirty, style of play on the part of individual players on the field: hacking, chopping down, plowing (into opposing players), clipping, scything - all farming actions. Or maybe it’s both?
So, now that it's the "offseason," I’m asking the OTF cognoscenti to educate me about "agricultural football."
I’ve done Internet searches of the term and get instances of use but no outright definition. Does agricultural football refer to a team’s outdated strategy/tactics, such as long ball, kick and rush, trying to lob the ball to the classic big bloke in the box? Those strategies can be deemed “agricultural” in that they’re antiquated, “pre-modern,” brutish, something from the past. Or does it have to do with a rough, physical, possibly dirty, style of play on the part of individual players on the field: hacking, chopping down, plowing (into opposing players), clipping, scything - all farming actions. Or maybe it’s both?
So, now that it's the "offseason," I’m asking the OTF cognoscenti to educate me about "agricultural football."
Comment