Actions speak louder than words. With his impact on the field and his quiet, unassuming nature off it, Ben Cunnington could well live his life by the old adage.

The North Melbourne midfielder has been in fine form in 2021, reaffirming his value to the club and his qualities as a potential All-Australian midfielder.

However, just because he doesn’t say much doesn’t mean Cunnington is not taking a front-foot role in the development of North’s youthful crop midfielders, according to David Noble.

“For him (Cunnington), less is more. It’s not necessarily about having conversations … [but] he’s got a real thirst for developing and helping our young guys through,” Noble said.

“You don’t see it on the field but his work with (Tom) Powell, (Charlie) Lazzaro [and] (Will) Phillips post-training when they’re doing some craft work is outstanding.

“He may only say two or three things to them at a particular time, but they’re really clean … the other aspect is leadership by showing direction on how he actually goes about it.”

Key-defender Robbie Tarrant was earmarked for his first appearance in North colours this this season, with the club planning on progressing his recovery to play a half of VFL football against Coburg this weekend.

With this weekend’s round of VFL postponed due to Victoria’s lockdown measures, Tarrant will not be able to secure the half of football he was earmarked for heading into the bye round.

“We were keen for him to play a half to get a bit more physicality into his training … we had a quick chat this morning as to what that might look like going forward” Noble said.

“We’ll have to put our thinking hats on … how we construct our training this week for Robbie in particular might be a little different to the norm.

“Hopefully it doesn’t delay his return, we just have to solve that problem a little bit smarter internally.”

With no fans allowed in attendance at this weekend’s fixture against St Kilda, Noble has urged fans to stick by the team by any means necessary.

He says the club can’t wait to have supporters back in attendance as soon as possible.

“For our fans, we’re really thinking of you under these circumstances,” Noble added.

“We’re certainly feeling for you guys out there and can’t wait to get you back into the games and hear that enormous Kangaroo cheer for us at Marvel.

“Good luck guys, hang in there.”