Patrick Cripps

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 he 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 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. Cripps played junior football for Northampton Rams before moving to boarding school 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.

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. Cripps made his senior debut against Melbourne in Round 4, 2014, 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, 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 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 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 AFLCA MVP
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 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.

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

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. 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. Preceding Carlton's next game against Brisbane, Cripps revealed he almost didn't play due to being "mentally fried". 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.

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. In 2021, Cripps re-signed with Carlton until 2027 making him effectively a Blue for life. 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

2022–present: 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.

In round 3 of the 2023 season, Cripps recorded a career-best 42 disposals in Carlton's ten-point win over.

Statistics
Updated to the end of round 18, 2024.

! colspan=3 | Career ! 200 !! 111 !! 101 !! 1939 !! 3187 !! 5126 !! 630 !! 1090 !! 0.6 !! 0.5 !! 9.7 !! 15.9 !! 25.6 !! 3.2 !! 5.5 !! 141
 * 2014 || || 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 || || 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 || || 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 || || 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 || || 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 || || 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 || || 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 || || 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 || || 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±
 * 2023 || || 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 || || 9
 * 17 || 15 || 3 || 189 || 298 || 487 || 44 || 92 || 0.9 || 0.2 || 11.1 || 17.5 || 28.6 || 2.6 || 5.4 ||
 * - class=sortbottom
 * 20 || 13 || 11 || 163 || 305 || 468 || 63 || 85 || 0.7 || 0.6 || 8.2 || 15.3 || 23.4 || 3.2 || 4.3 || 5
 * 2022 || || 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±
 * 2023 || || 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 || || 9
 * 17 || 15 || 3 || 189 || 298 || 487 || 44 || 92 || 0.9 || 0.2 || 11.1 || 17.5 || 28.6 || 2.6 || 5.4 ||
 * - class=sortbottom
 * 2024 || || 9
 * 17 || 15 || 3 || 189 || 298 || 487 || 44 || 92 || 0.9 || 0.2 || 11.1 || 17.5 || 28.6 || 2.6 || 5.4 ||
 * - class=sortbottom
 * }

Notes

Honours and achievements

 * Carlton co-captain: 2019–2021; captain: 2022–present
 * 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
 * 3× 22under22 team: 2015, 2016, 2017
 * 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. Cripps also grew up near another former Eagle in Daniel Chick.

On 31 December 2022, Cripps married his partner Monique Fontana.