North can't win without Cunnington.
Printable View
He is a very underrated. Just so elite at such an important facet of footy and plays within his limitations elsewhere. Terrific player.
Depending on how good/bad his tank is, I would be very tempted to play. Like how much ground can he cover and for how long? If he isn't a complete liability, I would love to see English playing in a role that doesn't involved having to compete in hitouts. I think he can really help fill the void left by Naughts as a higher tall forward.
We have seen since 2015 that Bevo doesn't rate the traditional ruckman - Grundy/Goldy/Gawn are not traditional ruckmen. Think about who he has used in the ruck role - Ayce Cordy, Boyd, Roughie, Dunks, Trengove, English to name a few.
In effect the way Bevo sees the ruck is a 50-50 contest that can give you an advantage if you win it. But if the best a ruckman can do is win the 50-50 contests then that is not enough. They have to contribute around the ground and at the stoppages. Watching foootage of English over the last 2 weeks, what impresses me about him is not that he plays a kick behind the play, but that he is a link up player going forward, providing a viable target and running the opposition ruckman off their feet. Doesn't always work - Grundy out ran English, but against the Sydney sides he was awesome.
We saw today Tim was given a different role. Taking most of the centre bounce ruck work then slipping down to the forward line to rest and stretch the Crows backline. In the end Dunks took most of the ruck work around the ground.
Of course this won't work against a Max Gawn, or Grundy, but was very effective today as the mids cleaned up the clearances, (well Bont did)
You are doing a disservice to Libba. He did the in and under on Sunday, as well as plenty of the skilful bits, especially when "resting" on the half-forward line. Should have kicked the goal when he got the 50 though.
I don't think he has ever played a game in the seconds either? If so, it would have been later with his injuries but he has been there since Round 1, 2011 in the middle.
Re-reading my post I sounded harsh but i was not trying to be. Apologies if it came across that way.
It was in reference to your last sentence, where you inferred that Bont got all the clearances on Sunday. I just thought Libba and Macrae played their stock-standard games, with Smith doing better than his already high average as well.
Having said all that, there is nothing to get carried away about. The Crows Mids are their weak-point and they made the Dog's look like a million bucks.