Big Bodied Midfielders

[SBYM]

Guess which former player has had his hands in the cookie jar man ?

Both hands, I think.

 

[ManOfClay]

never mention Cunnington and Wood in the same sentence again please. 1 is a goal kicking mid in the top few in clearances per game in the league and the other is a back flanker

If you couldn't understand the analogy then you aren't worth engaging with.

Very selective use of Cunnington's stats. He's waaaay behind the truly elite up and coming mids like liberatore et al.

 

[JZTIME!]

yes he is actually top 5 in total clearances and kicks more goals per game than the rest, not worth getting excited about at all, you know after virtually 1 full pre season to date. Keep digging

 

[Damon_3388]

Dean Rioli will always be the best big bodied midfielder.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Big bodies
rippling muscles

Heaving chests

 

[Pessimistic]

As a matter of interest how mig were brisbanes midfield when they were dominatin ?

 

[Heaps of fun]

Cunnington can't run though so in a real game he'd always get caught. Which he does, I can't think of any midfielders who get caught with the ball as often as him.

Happens far too often. The reason he gets tackled is probably partly to do with endurance and or his ability to accelerate from packs, but I think the reason he gives as many free kicks away for it as he does has to do with how he choses to play the game. Doesn't try to hold things up, seems the natural thing to him is to try and break from holds rather than going to ground early and flailing around like the pros do it.
Either way he needs to start actually breaking those tackles more or playing along as most inside mids do.

 

[WCErevival]

As a matter of interest how mig were brisbanes midfield when they were dominatin ?

Hart 175cm
Akermanis 177cm
Power 180cm
Voss 183cm
Black 186cm
Lappin 188cm

 

[ThatsjustDappa]

This thread should be merged with the 'tearing it up in the pre-season' thread of yesteryear....

 

[Furn2]

Big bodies
rippling muscles

Heaving chests

Tight firm buttocks.

 

[Tas]

If you couldn't understand the analogy then you aren't worth engaging with.

Very selective use of Cunnington's stats. He's waaaay behind the truly elite up and coming mids like liberatore et al.

Bulldogs midfield numbers would be more meaningful if you guys actually did anything when you had the ball. For an 'elite' up and comer in Libba, Griffen, Cooney, all australian ruckman... You guys must have made the top 4.

Libba is a good quality kid but your mindless bullshit you post about our players is embarrassing to read, I am embarrassed for you that you can put tripe like that on the internet.

 

[Kakkle]

Give me a run, 193cm & 90kg

 

[Adam H]

Cunnington can't run though so in a real game he'd always get caught. Which he does, I can't think of any midfielders who get caught with the ball as often as him.

Taylor Adam's gets caught far to often for a AFL footballer.

 

[Tas]

yeh I really rate Cunnington, said similar a year or two ago, he's one of the most impressive of all your youngsters coming through, believe he's a Geelong Falcons boy I think.

North have a few taller midfielders actually, Anthony, Cunnington, Black, Ziebell and now Garner...they are all 186cm - 192cm in height.

The problem with Cunnington is he hasn't had the opportunity to play first string inside midfielder, in 2013 he got half a season after Swallow went down and prior to that he only had a handful of games where Swallow wasn't there.

So despite his age and number of games, he probably isn't as advanced (nor has had the confidence) as some younger mids who have had the opportunity to play the core role for longer during games. I still think he will be the better 'extractor' long-term, I don't think Swallow's body will cope well with the punishment as he gets older. The beauty of the bigger bodied players is they can absorb more punishment before they sustain an injury.

I wouldn't say we have a fascination with big bodies, but we haven't recruited too many small pure midfielders for some time. Based on 2013 attributes and pre-season changes we have:
Atley 189cm 84kg 61 games 21 y/o
Bastinac 184cm 84kg 79 games 22 y/o
Cunnington 185cm 87kg 74 games 22 y/o
Dumont 186cm 83kg 0 games 18 y/o
Garner 186cm 80kg 2 games 20 y/o
Gibson 185cm 83kg 35 games 27 y/o
Greenwood 181cm 87kg 52 games 24 y/o
Harper 187cm 84kg 40 games 21 y/o
Hine 184cm 83kg 23 games 21 y/o
Jacobs 185cm 83kg 33 games 22 y/o
MacMillan 188cm 86kg 58 games 22 y/o
McDonald 188cm 85kg 0 games 18 y/o
McKenzie 186cm 84kg 12 games 20 y/o
Mullett 184cm 79kg 31 games 21 y/o
Swallow 182cm 80kg 146 games 26 y/o
Wells 181cm 79kg 212 games 28 y/o
Ziebell 188cm 90kg 80 games 22 y/o

We also add Dal Santo 185cm 85kg 260 games 29 y/o

We don't really have any 190+ mids but we have a large brigade of medium-large mids and have cut most of our specialist flankers, most of the guys filling in flank roles are genuine midfielders.

I have excluded Adams and Harvey who do play time in the middle but are also small forwards, it is pretty difficult to define their roles now and going forward. I've also excluded Anthony because I doubt he will play again outside of holocaust level of injuries.

While we don't have the depth of upper echelon level of talent, overall we have a lot of pretty talented guys, I think we will develop a pretty even side over the field and I think that is generally harder to counter than a side that has superstar talent but a jellyfish spine once the stars are well held.

 

[Donakebab]

Bulldogs midfield numbers would be more meaningful if you guys actually did anything when you had the ball. For an 'elite' up and comer in Libba, Griffen, Cooney, all australian ruckman... You guys must have made the top 4.

Libba is a good quality kid but your mindless bullshit you post about our players is embarrassing to read, I am embarrassed for you that you can put tripe like that on the internet.

Good quality kid? Libba is just about the best young mid in the country. Definitely ahead of both Cunnington and Ziebell.

 

[Hot Pocket]

I wonder how Jack Viney will fit into this category. He has a big body and is hard as a coffin nail. Not tall though.

 

[Grogg]

Very selective use of Cunnington's stats. He's waaaay behind the truly elite up and coming mids like liberatore et al.

Great looking prospect Libba, who is a machine and seems to fit the Bullies mould of being an out and out trier, no matter what.

I don't see a hell of a lot of the other teams though and am wondering if you could expand a little on the other guys in Cunningtons demographic who are waaaay ahead?

 

[Damon_3388]

Big bodies
rippling muscles

Heaving chests

 

[Damon_3388]

This thread should be merged with the 'tearing it up in the pre-season' thread of yesteryear....

Exactly how many houses are being trained down at this point in time?

 

[MaddAdam]

If you couldn't understand the analogy then you aren't worth engaging with.

Very selective use of Cunnington's stats. He's waaaay behind the truly elite up and coming mids like liberatore et al.

Libba's a gun and Cunners is probably a bit behind him in pure inside quality. That said, Cunners has an amazing ability to find space and create opportunities. Also, Cunners has him shaded for the ability to go forward and snag goals though, which will count greatly with interchange restrictions.

What can be agreed on though is that McCartney has clearly followed Scott's path of rebuilding a team from the inside out. In this regard, it is pointless to compare just Libba and Cunners.

Far better to compare the units. And the Dogs have lost Cross and Boyd and can't be far off. It will be a talented but very young inside unit of Libba, Wallis, Smith etc going out soon. The North unit of Swallow, JZ, Cunners, Bastinac has the edge there clearly. The boy we drafted Dumont could probably go Rd1 too.

Here we see Cunners dispose of hard man Liam Picken (the bloke who is still living off that one day he beat a true champion years ago) who also makes up part of the Dogs inside unit.



The Dogs are coming sure, but you're a few years off yet.

Also, Cunners is an outstanding young man from a healthy farming background who places family first, not a crackhead who shamed his father by passing out in an MDMA haze on King St.

 

[ManOfClay]

Here we see Cunners dispose of hard man Liam Picken (the bloke who is still living off that one day he beat a true champion years ago) who also makes up part of the Dogs inside unit.


Also, Cunners is an outstanding young man from a healthy farming background who places family first, not a crackhead who shamed his father by passing out in an MDMA haze on King St.

Picken hasn't been part of our inside unit for the past two years. Plays midfield every now and then but has transitioned to small defender.

Also good to see you taking the usual cheap shots. Libba came back from that saga to be one of the best mids in the league. Stuff like that didn't stop North picking and then persisting with Aaron Edwards.

Happens far too often.

Good post, Cunnington has talent but that is something he needs to fix. Funny that JZTIME! said it doesn't happen.

Taylor Adam's gets caught far to often for a AFL footballer.

Never seen Adams play.

Libba is a good quality kid but your mindless bullshit you post about our players is embarrassing to read, I am embarrassed for you that you can put tripe like that on the internet.

Hit a nerve did I?

 

[Hot Pocket]

So how about this next ten years of seeing Ollie Wines vs Jack Viney? You want to talk contested powerhouse beast machines, that's where it's at!

 

[ManOfClay]

Great looking prospect Libba, who is a machine and seems to fit the Bullies mould of being an out and out trier, no matter what.

I don't see a hell of a lot of the other teams though and am wondering if you could expand a little on the other guys in Cunningtons demographic who are waaaay ahead?

"Out and out trier" is selling Liberatore very short. He's pure silk. Statistaclly we won a clearance more than half the time he attended centre bounces (directly after goals and start of quarters, not stoppages) And also was only behind Ablett, Judd, Pendlebury and one other in terms of creating scores from clearances.

All this while also being among the top handful in tackles and being the top in clearances.

He's not really up for discussion in this thread though, being more a Sam Mitchell type than a big bodied mid.

 

[ManOfClay]

So how about this next ten years of seeing Ollie Wines vs Jack Viney? You want to talk contested powerhouse beast machines, that's where it's at!

Add in Jake Stringer too. That draft was good for the bigger bodied types based on those three alone.

 

[Hot Pocket]

Add in Jake Stringer too. That draft was good for the bigger bodied types based on those three alone.

Viney ain't that tall, but he's definitely big. And I wouldn't tell him he isn't big. I still remember round 1 last year (mostly for all the wrong reasons) but seeing Wines and Viney both break the record for contested possessions by a rookie (in their first games!) and getting the exact same amount of contested possessions.... yeah I got a boner over it.