Patrick Cripps

Patrick Cripps
Cripps playing for Carlton in 2018
Personal information
Full name	Patrick Cripps
Nickname(s)	Crippa
Date of birth	(1995-03-18) 18 March 1995 (age 29)
Place of birth	Perth, Western Australia
Original team(s)	East Fremantle (WAFL)
Draft	No. 13, 2013 national draft
Debut	Round 4, 2014, Carlton  vs. Melbourne, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Height	195 cm (6 ft 5 in)
Weight	93 kg (205 lb)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Carlton
Number	9
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
2014–	Carlton	207 (113)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
2020	All Stars	1 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of the 2024 season. 2 State and international statistics correct as of 2020.
Career highlights
Carlton co-captain: 2019–2021; captain: 2022– 2× Brownlow Medal: 2022, 2024 Leigh Matthews Trophy: 2019 4× All-Australian team: 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024 5× John Nicholls Medal: 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024 AFL Rising Star nominee: 2015
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Patrick Cripps (born 18 March 1995) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Cripps won the Leigh Matthews Trophy in 2019, and is a dual Brownlow Medallist, four-time All-Australian and five-time John Nicholls Medallist; he was the second-youngest player to win the latter when he first won the award in 2015 and has won the equal-most at the club, along with Nicholls. Cripps served as Carlton co-captain from 2019 to 2021, and he has served as the sole captain since the 2022 season.

Early life

Cripps was born in Perth, but at a young age he moved to the small farming town of Northampton in Western Australia's Mid West. ^[1] Cripps played junior football for local club Northampton Rams before moving to Aquinas College in Perth and playing juniors and colts for the East Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian Football League. He represented Western Australia at the 2013 AFL Under-18 Championships, serving as vice-captain and winning a place in the All-Australian Team for the tournament. ^[2]

AFL career

2014–2017: Early career and rise in form

Cripps was recruited by the Carlton Football Club with its first-round selection in the 2013 AFL National Draft (No. 13 overall). Even as a junior, his playing style as a strong-bodied midfielder with a strong ability to win clearances by handpass drew comparisons with club Hall of Famer and AFL Team of the Century player Greg Williams. ^{[3] [4]} Cripps made his senior debut against Melbourne in Round 4, 2014, ^[5] but he played only three matches during the season due to injuries. Cripps changed from his debut jumper number of 16 at the end of the 2014 season to number 9 after it was vacated after the delisting of Kane Lucas.

In just his second season, Cripps, standing at 195 cm (6 ft 5 in), established himself as a top inside midfielder, finishing 8th in the league for contested possessions and 11th for clearances, and earning strong acclaim for his attacking use of handball. ^[6] He finished second in the 2015 AFL Rising Star award after holding favouritism with bookmakers for much of the year, and he won the John Nicholls Medal as Carlton's best and fairest to become the second-youngest winner in the award's history. ^[7]

In 2016, Cripps further solidified his place as one of the best inside midfielders in the AFL, amassing 185 clearances at an average of 8.8 per game, ranked #1 in the AFL, as well as 354 contested possessions at an average of 16.9, ranked #2 in the AFL for the season. ^[8] After a slow start to the 2017 season whilst recovering from a back injury, Cripps found form to average 24.9 disposals and 6.7 clearances from 15 games before his season was cut short with a broken leg.

2018–2019: Co-captaincy and AFLPA MVP

Before the beginning of the 2018 season, he was announced as joint vice-captain of Carlton, along with defender Sam Docherty. ^[9] Cripps had a magnificent 2018, winning his second Carlton best and fairest, All-Australian honours, and finishing second in voting for the Leigh Matthews Trophy. Averaging over 29 touches a game, Cripps managed to become the leading contested possession winner and breaking the league record for a single-season haul, eclipsing Patrick Dangerfield's previous benchmark of 386 with 388. He later re-signed with the club until the end of the 2021 season. ^[10]

In October 2018, Cripps and Sam Docherty were named Carlton co-captains. ^[11]

In 2019, Cripps would deliver his finest season yet. In the pre-season 2019 AFLX Grand Final, Cripps, playing for the composite team known as 'Rampage', humorously performed a place kick, a kick that had become entirely obsolete for Australian rules football in the 1950s. ^{[12] [13] [14]} In the 2019 season proper, Cripps averaged a staggering 8.5 clearances, 17 contested possessions and 6.2 tackles a game.

After Round 11 2019, Carlton coach Brendon Bolton was sacked due to poor performance. ^[15] Preceding Carlton's next game against Brisbane, Cripps revealed he almost didn't play due to being "mentally fried". ^[16] Cripps ended up playing that game kicking 4 goals and being named best on ground in the Blues' 15 point victory.

His fantastic season would be enough to secure him the Leigh Matthews Trophy. ^[17]

2020–2021: COVID years and form slump

It has been speculated that Patrick Cripps was suffering a chronic back issue during the seasons of 2020 and 2021, which saw considerable drops in his performance. However, this was never confirmed by the club or Patrick himself. ^[18] In 2021, Cripps re-signed with Carlton until 2027 making him effectively a Blue for life. ^[19] With a drop of form across both COVID impacted seasons, Cripps faced criticism by multiple former AFL players with him being accused of being a "journeyman" and playing for million dollar contract ^[20]

2022–2023: Sole captaincy and Brownlow win

The year 2022 started with Patrick polling 25 of a possible maximum 30 votes in the AFLCA MVP over the first three rounds, before injuring a hamstring against the Gold Coast Suns in round four. Cripps won the 2022 Brownlow Medal by a single vote, becoming the first Carlton player to win it since Chris Judd in 2010. ^[21]

In round 3 of the 2023 season, Cripps recorded a career-best 42 disposals in Carlton's ten-point win over Greater Western Sydney. ^[22]

2024–present: Record-breaking Brownlow win

In 2024 Cripps had another standout year, averaging 8 clearances and 28.8 disposals a game. He came second in the AFL Coaches Association's Champion Player award, the AFL Players' Association MVP award and the AFLPA Best Captain award. He was also the vice captain for the 2024 all-Australian team. Going into the 2024 Brownlow night Cripps was one of the favourites to win. He ended up tallying 45 votes, the most any player has ever received in the three votes system, securing his second Brownlow. Cripps also won his fifth John Nicholls Medal in 2024, equalling the record held by the award's namesake, John Nicholls.

Statistics

Updated to the end of the 2024 season. ^[23]

Legend

G	Goals	K	Kicks	D	Disposals	T	Tackles
B	Behinds	H	Handballs	M	Marks
±	Won that season's  Brownlow Medal

Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals							Averages (per game)							Votes
				G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
2014	Carlton	16	3	0	1	10	17	27	5	9	0.0	0.3	3.3	5.7	9.0	1.7	3.0	0
2015	Carlton	9	20	6	13	158	313	471	64	98	0.3	0.7	7.9	15.7	23.6	3.2	4.9	6
2016	Carlton	9	21	10	14	176	390	566	68	139	0.5	0.7	8.4	18.5	27.0	3.2	6.6	18
2017	Carlton	9	15	7	4	168	206	374	65	90	0.5	0.3	11.2	13.7	24.9	4.3	6.0	5
2018	Carlton	9	22	11	15	259	393	652	92	138	0.5	0.7	11.8	17.9	29.6	4.2	6.3	20
2019	Carlton	9	20	13	6	212	348	560	62	123	0.7	0.3	10.6	17.4	28.0	3.1	6.2	26
2020 [a]	Carlton	9	17	7	11	153	181	334	40	81	0.4	0.6	9.0	10.6	21.6	2.4	4.8	10
2021	Carlton	9	20	13	11	163	305	468	63	85	0.7	0.6	8.2	15.3	23.4	3.2	4.3	5
2022	Carlton	9	21	20	9	226	365	591	76	105	1.0	0.4	10.8	17.4	28.1	3.6	5.0	29±
2023	Carlton	9	24	9	14	226	370	596	51	130	0.4	0.6	9.4	15.4	24.8	2.1	5.4	22
2024	Carlton	9	24	17	6	266	426	692	63	129	0.7	0.3	11.1	17.8	28.8	2.6	5.4	45±
Career			207	113	104	2016	3315	5331	649	1127	0.6	0.5	9.7	16.0	25.8	3.1	5.4	186

Notes

1. The 2020 season was played with 17 home-and-away matches per team (down from 22) and 16-minute quarters with time on (down from 20-minute quarters with time on) due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Honours and achievements

• Carlton co-captain: 2019–2021; captain: 2022–present
• 2× Brownlow Medal: 2022, 2024
• Leigh Matthews Trophy: 2019
• 4× All-Australian team: 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024
• 5× John Nicholls Medal: 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024
• All-Stars representative honours in State of Origin for Bushfire Relief Match
• AFL Rising Star nominee: 2015

Personal life

Patrick Cripps is related to former West Coast Eagles footballer Chris Mainwaring through his father. Cripps' father is Mainwaring's first cousin, and the two are also related to current West Coast Eagles player Jamie Cripps. ^[24]

On 31 December 2022, Cripps married his partner Monique Fontana. ^[25]

References

1. Blues choose Cripps
2. "Four Sharks picked up in the 2013 AFL draft". 22 November 2013. Archived from the original on 28 June 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
3. Landsberger, Sam (22 November 2013), "Blues evoke Diesel in securing Cripps", Herald Sun
4. "The Carlton Hall of Fame". carltonfc.com.au. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
5. Connolly, Rohan (12 April 2014), "Blue day as Dees dare to believe", The Age
6. Riley Beveridge (8 September 2015). "Patrick Cripps tells Fox Footy he wants to be a one-club player at Carlton". Fox Sports. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
7. Loretta Johns (17 September 2015). "Cripps wins John Nicholls Medal". Carlton Football Club. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
8. "AFL Stats".
9. "Murphy steers new-look leadership group - carltonfc.com.au". carltonfc.com.au. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
10. Beveridge, Riley (25 July 2018). "Key Blue signs two-year contract extension". afl.com.au. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
11. Beveridge, Riley (5 October 2018). "Blues unveil co-captains as Murphy steps down". afl.com.au. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
12. "A place kick from Cripps if you don't mind". afl.com.au. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
13. AFLX | Cripps with the place kick, 24 February 2019, retrieved 2 April 2023
14. "AFLX 2019: Jack Riewoldt sets up Patrick Cripps for rare place kick goal for Rampage team". Fox Sports. 22 February 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
15. Siracusa, Claire (3 June 2019). "As it happened: Bolton sacked as Carlton coach". The Age. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
16. "BLUE'S BROWNLOW: Cripps wins 'Charlie' after thrilling count". afl.com.au. 18 September 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
17. "Cripps wins AFLPA MVP". carltonfc.com.au. 29 August 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
18. "AFL 2021: Carlton Blues' Patrick Cripps has been playing with fractured back". amp.theage.com.au. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
19. "Blue for life: Patrick Cripps signs MONSTER contract extension". Fox Sports. 25 June 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
20. "'He's aged badly': AFL legend's blunt 'journeyman' assessment of Cripps". Fox Sports. 27 July 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
21. "Carlton gives the latest on Patrick Cripps injury plus updates on sidelined pair". www.sen.com.au. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
22. "GWS Giants v Carlton". afl.com.au. April 2023. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
23. "Patrick Cripps". AFL Tables. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
24. "The Mainwaring link, 'Slick Chick', diehard Eagles and the $51 Cripps Brownlow tip". www.sen.com.au. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
25. "Carlton superstar Patrick Cripps marries partner Monique Fontana in lavish ceremony in WA". 7news.com.au. January 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2023.

External links

• Patrick Cripps's profile on the official website of the Carlton Football Club
• Patrick Cripps's playing statistics from AFL Tables
• Patrick Cripps at AustralianFootball.com