Mick McGuane: Where North Melbourne, Ben Cunnington must improve to save their season

Has one of North Melbourne’s long-time strengths become part of its Achilles heel? Mick McGuane evaluates where the Roos must improve to save their season.

Mick McGuane says Ben Cunnington needs greater spread in his game. Picture: AAP Image/Hamish Blair.

Has one of North Melbourne’s long-time strengths become part of its Achilles heel?

Ben Cunnington is admired as one of the game’s best inside midfielders.

He’s third in the AFL for contested possessions and averages 29 disposals this year.

His 39 kicks to 106 handballs this year is lopsided, but not so much for a hard, inside midfielder.

Most of his possessions are hard fought, so it is no surprise his kick-to-handball ratio is low.

He is also heavily relied upon around stoppages to win first possession and kick-start his team’s offence.

But there’s a worrying predictability about the way he is playing, and it’s not helping the Kangaroos’ plight.

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You know what to expect when you are up against a Todd Goldstein-Cunnington combination.

What the Kangaroos often do is roll up a fifth midfielder from half-forward to get an extra number around the stoppages, and feed off Cunnington’s strength of winning the ball.

But when they decide to kick out of congestion to an outnumbered forward line his strength becomes a team weakness.

He can’t defend the opposition’s ball movement or a dangerous opponent who is about to win the footy.

Mick McGuane says Ben Cunnington needs greater spread in his game. Picture: AAP Image/Hamish Blair.

To my eye, Cunnington doesn’t look fit enough or quick enough to react to these situations.

His speed to defend out of stoppages is non-existent and his low tackle numbers are an indicator — he has only 11 tackles from five games.

As David King referenced in his column yesterday, there seems to be a team focus on winning possession rather than winning the ball back.

I was at Kangaroos training on Wednesday and watched their two-hour session.

When it comes to defensive running patterns, Cunnington looked like a one-paced plodder.

His “jungle” is from zero to five metres. In that zone, he’s as a good as anyone. But there is far more to the game than that.

He needs offensive and defensive spread. He needs to apply pressure and tackle.

He needs to run long to support, and get back into defence when required.

That needs to start tonight against Port Adelaide.

Jared Polec was the key off-season recruit for North Melbourne. Picture: Michael Klein.

WINGMEN

North Melbourne identified the need for outside influence, recruiting Jared Polec, Jasper Pittard and Aaron Hall.

Wingmen today are as important as ever, and they are required to run 15-16km a game.

These days wingmen follow a holding pattern outside centre bounces, trusting their inside crew to win possession.

Polec and Hall are naturally offensive players, but a big part of the wingman’s role is to push back in defence to support the back six so that extra numbers will give them a greater opportunity to kickstart offence.

They must play this role, and ignore the urge to become kick chasers or possession hunters.

Tonight is the time to sell that message, considering Port is a high inside 50m team.

Aaron Hall joined North Melbourne from Gold Coast during the off-season. Picture; Michael Dodge/Getty Images.

WHAT NEEDS FIXING

1. North’s mids/forwards are tracking the footy like bees to the honeypot, neglecting cover for turnover.

I was rapt to see at training they were working on inside 50m ground ball game situations for forwards/defenders.

What I also saw was a tighter corridor cover than what we witnessed against Essendon.

They allowed the Bombers to transition out of defensive 50 into their forward 50 too many times with little corridor pressure.

2. They must increase forward 50m tackle count. They’ve had 30 for the year, ranked 18th. Port Adelaide is second, with 64.

North hasn’t won an overall tackle differential all season.

Last week the Kangaroos had 43 tackles, with 10 coming from Jed Anderson — 12 Kangaroos had one tackle or less last week.

That tells me the players aren’t invested in team defence.

From Rounds 1-11 last year, the Kangaroos allowed opposition to score only 71.4 points per game, ranking second.

They lost their way between Round 12-22, conceding an extra three and a half goals per game. From Round 5 this year, that has exploded to 102 per game, ranking 17th.

Brad Scott has plenty of issues to address to turn North Melbourne’s fortunes around. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith.

3. North Melbourne is last for scores against from centre bounces since the 6-6-6 rule introduction.

They are averaging 9.4 points from centre bounces, but conceding 26 points a game.

They are ranked 18th. Compare that to No. 1 ranked side Fremantle which concedes 4.4 points.

The Kangaroos must get one of their wingers to come in off the side of the square to run a defensive pattern in the view that the opposition come out the front of centre bounce stoppages.

Immediately, one will say his winger is now free if he keeps his width, but that’s when a high half-forward (Tarryn Thomas) comes up to cover.

Please, Brad Scott, look at the first two centre bounces of the third quarter last week and watch Bomber Brayden Ham’s intent in pressuring Shaun Higgins and Aaron Hall.

4. North use the corridor out of defensive 50 25 per cent of the time — the highest in the competition.

They must bring the ball back into the corridor more when they win the ball centre-forward.

They are playing too safe and skinny, mostly channelling the ball through Ben Brown.

Time to play with more risk and dare and create more scoring opportunities.