FOR SOME time, Ben Cunnington has been the owner of the AFL's most lethal left hand.

North Melbourne's midfield general might now have elevated himself into the ranks of the best handballers the game has seen – of either hand.

Cunnington's extraordinary dexterity was on full display in round 15 at Marvel Stadium when he produced a 37-possession masterclass that piloted the resurgent Kangaroos to a boilover belting of second-placed Collingwood.

Ben Cunnington manages a crafty look-away handball. Picture: AFL Photos



The rampaging Roo shredded the Magpies with some classic inside work, broke tackles with shimmies and Dustin Martin-style fend-offs, hit targets with deftly weighted kicks and, most spectacularly, delivered some outrageous handballs.

Of Cunnington's 24 handballs, two in particular left us gasping in awe – at his power and precision, but also his vision, creativity and general genius.

Both were long, laser-like passes to teammates who hadn't even realised they were an option; and both efforts quickly cleared congestion, creating space and opportunities that presumably only he knew existed.

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Late in the third quarter with North 26 points clear, Cunnington received the ball near the boundary at half-forward and shot a 20-metre handball inboard to Kayne Turner – who'd had his back half-turned and had only slight separation from his speedy, high-quality opponent Jack Crisp – and suddenly North was again a scoring threat.

Just before three-quarter-time Cunnington also crumbed a pack at half-forward and dished off a slick left-hander to Jed Anderson that led to a goal that stretched the margin to a virtually impregnable 34 points.

There was a more memorable Cunnington-to-Anderson pipeline in the dying stages.

With just three minutes left, North was 50 points in front and Cunnington had already done enough to be deemed best-on-ground when he conjured a handball that would be spoken about more than any mark or goal that night.

After getting the pill in his hot hands at centre half-back, Cunnington fired a rocket handball – rocket by both name (invented by Kevin Sheedy) and nature – to Anderson at centre wing.

The ball travelled about 30 metres and hit its target in just 1.5 seconds – at an average speed of about 70km/h.

Cunners' stunners prompted some chuckle-worthy tweets such as, "Ben Cunnington can handball through a keyhole," and, more cheekily, "Proven aphrodisiacs – oysters, figs (and) a 25-metre weighted Ben Cunnington handball through traffic to a loose player on the wing."

In the winners' rooms post-match, Kangaroos runner Trent Dumont still couldn't believe what he'd seen.

"Did you see that handball on the wing?" an incredulous Dumont asked.

"It was like a kick – it was an absolute bullet.

"He's a freak. A lot of the time you sit back behind the stoppage and ask, 'How's he done that?' It's amazing to watch. He's superhuman."

Collingwood great Tony Shaw watched on with admiration from the 3AW radio box as Cunnington's left hand punched holes in his beloved Magpies.

A prolific left-handed handballer himself, Shaw regularly tagged perhaps the greatest handballer of all, dual Brownlow medallist Greg Williams, also a mollydooker, who revolutionised the game with his handiwork at Geelong, Sydney and Carlton.

Shaw believes Cunnington might well be the in the same class as Williams as a handballer.

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This is instructive given Williams probably heads a group of great left-handers that also includes legendary Geelong and WAFL ruckman Graham 'Polly' Farmer, superstar North Melbourne and WAFL rover Barry Cable, Hawthorn great Sam Mitchell, Brisbane champions Michael Voss and Simon Black, Western Bulldogs ball magnet Scott West and St Kilda's dual Brownlow winner Robert Harvey.

"'Diesel' (Williams) kicked the ball better but if you're talking purely about handball Cunnington is right up there with him," Shaw told AFL.com.au.

"Like Diesel, he's got great peripheral vision and he reads the play so well that he doesn't just handball to someone in traffic and put them under pressure; he spreads it to the widest option, to someone in the most dangerous position, and he doesn't even make them break stride. It really opens the game up.

"And the bloke is hardly ever tackled. Diesel and Sammy Mitchell had great core strength but this bloke is a beast."

North Melbourne skipper Jack Ziebell, who also starred against the Woods, declared Cunnington was enjoying "an All Australian, Brownlow (Medal) type of year". Cunnington is second in the AFL Coaches' Association award.

"I haven't seen anyone with Ben's skills ever," Ziebell told 3AW post-match.

Ziebell believes Cunnington is having a year good enough to win the Brownlow. Picture: AFL Photos



Cunnington's handball clinic against Collingwood was an emphatic response to the disappointment of his 200th game the previous week when he eked out just 16 possessions in a loss to Greater Western Sydney in Hobart.

Ahead of that milestone, North assistant coach Gavin Brown, the former Collingwood champion, hailed Cunnington the best inside midfielder and probably the best handballer he'd seen.

Such accolades rarely raise the heartrate of the humble, media-shy Cunnington, who learned his skills on his family's isolated dairy farm at Princetown on Victoria's south-west coast.

Cunnington, who turned 28 the day after his heroics against the Pies, has amassed 278 handballs this season – only three behind the AFL leader in Brisbane's Lachie Neale – and is averaging a career-high 20 a game.

Over the past three seasons he has averaged 16.5 handballs a game. (This season he leads the competition in contested possessions and clearances.)

Ranked No.10 in the Official AFL Player Ratings, Cunnington is clearly the AFL's most destructive handballer. His closest rival in this department is probably Collingwood skipper Scott Pendlebury, a left-footer who is more proficient with his right-hand.

In this, Cunnington is Pendlebury's mirror image – a right-footer and a left-hander, as were the aforementioned Greg Williams, Sam Mitchell and Robert Harvey, along with fellow greats such as Richmond rover Dale Weightman, Adelaide duo Mark Ricciuto and Andrew McLeod, Hawthorn champ Shane Crawford, prolific Pie Dane Swan and Bulldogs handball machine Daniel Cross.

Williams had an interesting theory about his right-foot/left-hand preference.

"I disagree with people who say I was a left-hand handballer. My right hand was actually the dominant one in my left-hand handball. My right side is the dominant side of my body," Williams told me in an interview for my 2006 book The Champions: Conversations With Great Players & Coaches of Australian Football.

"I was also lucky to be able to grip the ball in one hand, which not many players can do – most just rest the ball in their hand. My left fist was the one that usually hit the ball, but the hand I grabbed the ball best with was my right hand.

"I could grab the ball with my left hand but not as well, so my handballing with my right hand wasn't as strong."

It seems the contrast is even greater with Cunnington, given that in a rare interview he estimated he'd handballed with his right hand just twice in his career.