Ben Cunnington: Football’s MVP?

[00Stinger]

Perhaps yes but the fact remains no player in the competition arguably is as important to THEIR side as what he is to them

Lol

Put Cunnington back into that team and they are still 0-3



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[PhatBoy]

Lol

Put Cunnington back into that team and they are still 0-3



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This changes my point how, exactly?

And I would be very surprised if you added Cunnington to their team and they somehow slip from 1-2, to 0-3

 

[Engimal v3]

Probably the most classic case of if he was at a big club, he would be spoken about in the media in the same discussions as some of the all time greats.

Geez, I love Cunners but I don't think he'd be discussed amongst the all time greats if he were at any of the bigger clubs - and that's hardly a knock on him. He's an elite inside midfielder and has been for quite a while, and that's an achievement in itself.

 

[Engimal v3]

Lol

Put Cunnington back into that team and they are still 0-3



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You think Cunnington would have made us lose an additional game?

 

[DEVO]

For the years 2001-2100? Absolutely.
In the one named in 2001? No, for obvious reasons.

Could he replace anyone on the current team of the century, despite not playing in the appropriate timeframe? Yeah, I reckon you could make an argument for a few of them to come out. Peter Steward could make a spot for him on the interchange.

They did their 150th year anniversary in 2019. Not sure if there was an all-time team named (doesn't appear to be), but if you did an all-time team for their 150 years, I'd have him in it.

We did a top 150 players in 150 years going right back to Harry Fuhrhop from the 1870's, to Tarrant, Cunnington and Goldstein in the 2010's. We also had a top 10 players of all time (below) which Cunnington didn't quite make. I think most North fans on here had him just outside this list.

 

[DEVO]

You think Cunnington would have made us lose an additional game?

I confident we would have beaten Hawthorn with a little more depth in the midfield, especially if that depth was one of the games elite contested and clearance midfielders.

 

[HTPunter]

Super underrated. Some of the cleanest hands in the comp - not many are as creative, dynamic or offensive handballing, I'd genuinely say 2nd behind Oliver.

However to be MVP I think you need to be more than the difference between finishing 18th with 2 wins and 60% and 3.5 wins and 70%. He's helpful to our team, he has a significant improvement on our W-L record, but the MVP is a player that takes a good side to a contender in my opinion. That level of lifting is far more valuable, even if their teammates are better. For that reason it's gotta be Bontempelli.

 

[Clint Bizkit]

Always destroys Melbourne, last year in particular.

 

[SSSSSS]

Cunnington is a gun player but I don't think there is a more structurally important player to a single side than Dixon.

Port look an absolute shambles without him taking 2 defenders and crashing packs. Georgiades and Marshall are lightweights in comparison.

 

[ferball]

What we would do to have him out there, similarly to his record was the one of north with/ without Ben jacobs i think between 2016-2019 and Jarrad waite between 2016-2018.

I was gonna type this exact thing.

We lost both of them to injury (along with a few others) in 2016 when we went from playing fairly well to an absolute car crash.

 

[ferball]

Always destroys Melbourne, last year in particular.

Destroyed Bernie Vince once too.

 

[Osho]

He's the Jaques Kallis of footy.

Thinning hair.
Not oft talked about, the talent that haft no name.
Novices are shocked by the numbers.
Minority hardcore fans know the story.
Media shy.
Loyal to a fault.

 

[andrewb]

I've posted about this before but it becomes an even better stat if you go even further back:

2014 - 2022:

North with Cunnington:

Wins: 65
Draws: 1
Losses 75
Win %: 46%

Without Cunnington
Wins: 2
Losses: 26
Win%: 7%!

Over an 8 year period, their win rate drops 40% with the absence of just 1 player! Not only that, as you picked up, their only wins over an 8 year period without him are against a winless (mostly WAFL) West Coast and a winless Adelaide (that went on to win the spoon). In other words, they've not been able to beat a side that has won a game at any point in the last 8 years (and now into 9 years) without him!

Obviously in context he has missed much more football now that they're bad rather than when they were competitive but those are some crazy stats nonetheless!

This stat continues to get crazier

It's now:

65W / 1D / 75L (46% win rate) with Cunnington
2W / 36L (5% win rate) without Cunnington

 

[00Stinger]

This stat continues to get crazier

It's now:

65W / 1D / 75L (46% win rate) with Cunnington
2W / 36L (5% win rate) without Cunnington

The stat is scewed by him not playing this year though

Which game do you think they might have won if Cunnington played?

 

[Engimal v3]

The stat is scewed by him not playing this year though

Which game do you think they might have won if Cunnington played?

Only one I can think of is the Sydney game. Hawks game was close to a point too, but we won the clearances that game anyway so not sure if Cunnington would have stopped that loss.

 

[Clive Kepler]

Classic blue collar workman type player but with extra skills.

 

[andrewb]

The stat is scewed by him not playing this year though

Which game do you think they might have won if Cunnington played?

Yeah no doubt it's skewed, but if you look at 2021 when they had largely the same list they were 4-1-10 with him in the team which is a win rate of 30% vs 0% without him.

The guy is an absolute weapon. In their win against the Hawks last year he had 27 contested possessions.

I think they're a fundamentally different team when he's at the coalface and I think they would have snatched 2-3 extra games and been a lot more competitive in the rest.

 

[Bojan KantKick]

Yeah no doubt it's skewed, but if you look at 2021 when they had largely the same list they were 4-1-10 with him in the team which is a win rate of 30% vs 0% without him.

The guy is an absolute weapon. In their win against the Hawks last year he had 27 contested possessions.

I think they're a fundamentally different team when he's at the coalface and I think they would have snatched 2-3 extra games and been a lot more competitive in the rest.

Our young midfield brigade plays a lot better when Cunners is playing too.

 

[skittlebrew]

It just goes to show how important it is to have elite/top end level players. Depth is important obviously but you need guys you can rely on to win their position most weeks.

I think you can easily make a case that Roo's list is better than the Crow's but one of the (many) reasons we're performing better is that we have some better performing mature aged players in our team. You take out Dawson or Tex and some of our wins turn into losses without a doubt.

 

[Engimal v3]

 

[Kappa]

Based on this thread could North be a sneaky finals chance now Cunnington is back?

 

[Percel]

Yay

so much

Yay

 

[Engimal v3]

Based on this thread could North be a sneaky finals chance now Cunnington is back?

Kanga kanga kanga

 

[Outtatym]

Based on this thread could North be a sneaky finals chance now Cunnington is back?

What's sneaky about it?

 

[Frank Thring]

Get on us while the odds are still juicy