Patrick Cripps


Patrick Cripps is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League. Cripps is a dual All-Australian and a three-time John Nicholls Medallist, becoming the second-youngest player to win the award when he first won it in 2015, and won the Leigh Matthews Trophy in 2019. He received a nomination for the 2015 AFL Rising Star award in round 4 of the 2015 season. Cripps has served as Carlton co-captain since the 2019 season.

Early life

Cripps was born in Perth, but at a young age moved to the small farming town of Northampton in Western Australia's Mid West. Two other members of his family have played AFL football – Jamie Cripps and Chris Mainwaring. Cripps played junior football in Northampton, and then moved to Perth and played 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.

AFL career

Cripps was recruited by the Carlton Football Club with its first round selection in the 2013 AFL National Draft. 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 great Greg Williams. Cripps made his senior debut against Melbourne in Round 4, 2014, but 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 third season, Cripps a now 195 cm/6 ft 5 in has 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. 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.
In 2016, Cripps further solidified his place as one 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. After a slow start to the 2017 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.
Before the beginning of the 2018 season, he was announced as joint vice-captain of Carlton, along with defender Sam Docherty.
Cripps had a magnificent 2018, winning his second Carlton Best and Fairest, All Australian honours and finishing second in AFL MVP voting. Averaging over 29 touches a game, Cripps managed to become the leading contested possession winner 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.
In October 2018, Cripps and Sam Docherty were named Carlton co-captains.

Statistics

! colspan=3 | Career
! 110
! 52
! 59
! 1073
! 1772
! 2845
! 377
! 632
! 0.5
! 0.5
! 9.8
! 16.1
! 25.9
! 3.4
! 5.7
! 75

Honours and achievements

Individual