It's interesting seeing the number of references to his ability in the weight room.
I've heard from a bloke who played with him at the Saints that his functional strength was actually very poor. I don't know if he had a weak core or what, but apparently his visual/physical size didn't translate into the footy field - he reckoned at training that players who were leaner than him would be able to outposition and outmuscle him fairly easily on the field.
I mean I doubt he was "weak" by any stretch of the imagination, but compared to how big he looked. He had a lot of size that he couldn't use to his advantage on the field surprisingly
This is very true. I loved watching Gehrig play and he's one of my all time favourites, but his greatest strength was his explosive speed rather than ability to monster defenders. He had a massive upper body but wasn't particularly strong through the core or legs so could be pushed off balance in contests fairly easily. He made up for his high center of gravity by taking short, fast steps when wheeling around opponents to stay balanced. But he was so fast and the giant upper body allowed him to get that initial push off the defender when starting a lead. It was ultimately his diminishing pace that saw his comeback fail - opponents were able to keep up with him and Frase wasn't that good in a one-on-one marking contest.