Patrick Cripps (born 18 March 1995) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of Me ...

in the Australian Football League (AFL). Cripps won the

Leigh Matthews Trophy The Leigh Matthews Trophy is an annual award given by the AFL Players Association to the Most Valuable Player in the Australian Football League. It is named in honour of Leigh Matthews, who won the first MVP award in 1982, when the league was st ...

in 2019 and the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the "best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by t ...

in 2022, and is a three-time

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led b ...

and a four-time

John Nicholls Medal The John Nicholls Medal (formerly the Robert Reynolds Trophy from 1934 to 2003) is an Australian rules football award given to the player(s) adjudged best and fairest for the Carlton Football Club for the season. The voting system as of the 2017 A ...

list, 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.

Early life

Cripps was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, but at a young age moved to the small farming town of Northampton in Western Australia's

Mid West The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

. Two other members of his family have played AFL football – Jamie Cripps (third cousin) and

Chris Mainwaring Christopher Douglas Mainwaring (27 December 1965 – 1 October 2007) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL) and for the East Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian ...

(first cousin once removed). Cripps played junior football in Northampton, and then moved to

and played juniors and colts for the East Fremantle Football Club in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September ...

. He represented Western Australia at the

2013 AFL Under 18 Championships The 2013 NAB AFL Under 18 Championships was the 18th edition of the AFL Under 18 Championships. Eight teams competed in the championships: Vic Metro, Vic Country, South Australia and Western Australia in Division 1, and New South Wales/Australia ...

, serving as vice-captain and winning a place in the All-Australian Team for the tournament.

AFL career

Cripps was recruited by the

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. Cripps made his senior debut against

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

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 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. He finished second in the 2015 AFL Rising Star award after holding favouritism with bookmakers for much of the year, and he won the

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 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. 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. 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

. 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. 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.

Statistics

''Updated to the end of the 2022 season''. , - ,

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

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2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

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2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

, , , , 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 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

, , , , 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 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, , , , 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 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

, , , , 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 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

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2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

, , , , 9 , 21 , , 20 , , 9 , , 226 , , 365 , , 591 , , 76 , , 105 , , 1.0 , , 0.4 , , 10.8 , , 17.4 , , 28.1 , , 3.6 , , 5.0 , , bgcolor=98FB98 , 29^± , - class=sortbottom ! colspan=3 , 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) *

: 2019 * 3×

All-Australian team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led b ...

* 4×

: 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022 * All Stars representative honours in

State of Origin for Bushfire Relief Match The State of Origin for Bushfire Relief Match was a one-off all-star game between two representative sides organised by the Australian Football League to raise funds for recovery efforts following the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season. Th ...

* 2× 22under22 team: 2015, 2016 *

AFL Rising Star The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan Buc ...

nominee: 2015

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cripps, Patrick Carlton Football Club players East Fremantle Football Club players 1995 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia John Nicholls Medal winners People from Northampton, Western Australia Leigh Matthews Trophy winners All-Australians (AFL)