It was Peak Cunners in the middle of 2019 for Ben Cunnington, making the All-Australian squad and getting some rare (and largely unwanted) media attention for his dominant inside play. Then in round 13 he copped a hard tag from Matthew de Boer, and his fantasy average dropped by 15 points on the run to August. When up against freewheeling midfields post-bye he could still score, but he just could not handle any sort of close-checking attention. Cunnington is in danger of turning into the player that you sit on to stop North Melbourne, similar to a younger Daniel Rich at the Lions. Cunners doesn't have the wheels to run a tagger off their feet, and he hasn't figured out yet how to contribute to the team in other ways that show up on a basic stat sheet. Moving to attack is not an option, as he has shown in previous years that he lacks forward craft. He's got one club in his bag, and he has to learn how to swing it under duress.
Cunners knuckled under
It was Peak Cunners in the middle of 2019 for Ben Cunnington, making the All-Australian squad and getting some rare (and largely unwanted) media attention for his dominant inside play. Then in round 13 he copped a hard tag from Matthew de Boer, and his fantasy average dropped by 15 points on the run to August. When up against freewheeling midfields post-bye he could still score, but he just could not handle any sort of close-checking attention. Cunnington is in danger of turning into the player that you sit on to stop North Melbourne, similar to a younger Daniel Rich at the Lions. Cunners doesn't have the wheels to run a tagger off their feet, and he hasn't figured out yet how to contribute to the team in other ways that show up on a basic stat sheet. Moving to attack is not an option, as he has shown in previous years that he lacks forward craft. He's got one club in his bag, and he has to learn how to swing it under duress.
Ben Cunnington is getting some long-overdue recognition for being one of the premier inside midfielders of the competition. While he is never going to make many highlights with burst away from packs, his handball game from congestion is elite and his form this year has been so good that he even copped a tag in one game - which he did not handle all that well. For a player famously allergic to doing media, he is going to have to cope with the added scrutiny that comes from being considered an A-grader.
Plan works for Cunnington
With Jack Ziebell moving into the forward line in 2018, Ben Cunnington assumed even more responsibility as a contested ball winner in the North Melbourne midfield and handled the increased workload with aplomb. He made the top five in the league for contested possessions, ranked alongside some much bigger names. Extremely durable (just six games missed in six seasons), consistent and in the prime of his career at 27 years of age, Cunnington is a solid, if not particularly exciting, midfield option. Cunnington will be an early-middle rounds selection and should be valued slightly higher than those around his range due to his reliability.
Cunners is a gunner
The resurgence of Ben Cunnington was sufficient for for the former tagger to himself get a tag by Daniel Howe in round 21. He regained his best form of 2014, though by now he is a lot more inside with a kick-to-handball ratio of 9:16 instead of 11:10, plus a top three ranking for clearances with 57% of his possessions being contested. The retirement of Andrew Swallow means Cunnington is now one of the leaders of the team, and clearly their main extractor with Jack Ziebell and Shaun Higgins well behind in clearances. Fantasy coaches can get annoyed with him as he puts in some shockers, with six sub-70 scores last season. He is a middling player and a middle-round pick.
