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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 the Brownlow Medal in 2022, and is a three-time All-Australian and a four-time John Nicholls Medallist, becoming the second-youngest player to win the latter when he first won the award in 2015. Cripps served as Carlton co-captain from 2019 to 2021, and has served as the sole captain since the 2022 season.

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 27)
Place of birth	Perth, Western Australia
Original team(s)	East Fremantle (WAFL)
Draft	No. 13, 2013 national draft
Debut	Round 5, 2014, Carlton vs. Melbourne, at the MCG
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	159 (87)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
2020	All Stars	1 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of the 2022 season. 2 State and international statistics correct as of 2020.
Career highlights
Carlton captain: 2019– (co-captain 2019–2021) Brownlow Medal: 2022 Leigh Matthews Trophy: 2019 3× All-Australian team: 2018, 2019, 2022 4x John Nicholls Medal: 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022 2× 22under22 team: 2015, 2016 AFL Rising Star nominee: 2015
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

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 (third cousin) and Chris Mainwaring (first cousin once removed).[1] 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.[2]

AFL career

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 great Greg Williams.[3] Cripps made his senior debut against Melbourne in Round 4, 2014,[4] 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 second season, Cripps 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.[5] 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.[6]

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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]

In October 2018, Cripps and Sam Docherty were named Carlton co-captains.[10]

In 2019, Cripps would deliver his finest season yet, averaging a staggering 8.5 clearances, 17 contested possessions and 6.2 tackles a game. This would be enough to secure the Leigh Matthews Trophy.[11]

It has been speculated that Patrick Cripps was suffering through a chronic back issue during the seasons of 2020 and 2021, which saw considerable drops in his performance. Though, this was never confirmed by the club or Patrick himself.[12]

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 1 vote becoming the first Carlton player to win it since Chris Judd in 2010.[13]

Statistics

Updated to the end of the 2022 season.[14]

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	27.9	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[lower-alpha 1]	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±
Career			159	87	84	1524	2519	4043	535	868	0.5	0.5	9.6	15.8	25.4	3.4	5.5	119

Notes

Honours and achievements

• Carlton captain: 2019–present (co-captain 2019–2021)
• Brownlow Medal: 2022
• Leigh Matthews Trophy: 2019
• 3× All-Australian team: 2018, 2019, 2022
• 4× John Nicholls Medal: 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022
• All Stars representative honours in State of Origin for Bushfire Relief Match
• 2× 22under22 team: 2015, 2016
• AFL Rising Star nominee: 2015

References

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

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