Carlton captain and Brownlow Medallist Patrick Cripps is at the peak of his powers as he prepares to play game 200
Patrick Cripps has come a long way since his debut in 2014. But as the Blues captain prepares to play game 200, he has become the great experimenter to get the best out of himself.
Carlton
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Carlton’s recruiters nicknamed Patrick Cripps “The Extractor” in 2013.
These days Cripps is more of “The Experimenter”. Unsatisfied with his performances in night matches this season, Cripps played around with his pre-match routine during last month’s bye.
The skipper has recorded 41 disposals against Geelong and 33 disposals and two goals against Greater Western Sydney in games under lights since.
“He came out and had one of his best ever night games (against the Cats),” Blues fitness boss Andrew Russell told this masthead.
“He’s really bought into this concept of neuroplasticity, which is about rewiring your brain.
“He understands that to get better you need to train in different ways, think in different ways, eat in different ways and keep gathering new information in different ways.
“This is what makes the best athletes stand out, because they all train just as hard as each other.”
It can be a struggle to get to sleep after night matches. The buzz of playing in front of 80,000 at the MCG overloads the sympathetic nervous system.
So Cripps uses breathing techniques and a steam room to help switch on his parasympathetic nervous system and ‘come down’ from that rush.
Cripps now has a pillow addiction. He packs one from home when he travels interstate.
“We’re addicted to our own smell so if we sleep with a different pillow there’s a part of our brain that stays awake,” Russell said.
“He’s so curious that he grabs the scientifically principles and experiments with them to see what works best for him,” Russell said.
“A lot of athletes get to the top and feel like they’ve got it nailed. He’s constantly searching. He’s never satisfied, he’s always looking to improve his performance.”
CHARACTER TEST
Cripps is at the peak of his powers entering game 200. The 29-year-old clocked his fastest GPS time last week and is playing without rolls of taping or strapping that long formed part of his armour.
Cripps is on track for a fifth John Nicholls Medal (which would equal Nicholls’ record), fourth All-Australian blazer and possibly a second Brownlow Medal.
But rewind three years and Cripps could not touch his toes. Russell has seen players push through with fractured vertebrae before – but said Cripps’ dysfunction was “pretty high”.
It was that period that brought Cripps’ physical and mental toughness together.
“He’s rolling into a radiology clinic three hours before a game and getting injections in the back,” former coach John Barker told this masthead.
“He’s getting grenades thrown at him from the media about the fact he’s not the ‘Crippa’ he once was and maybe the contest game has taken its toll.
“At no stage did he put his own thoughts or feelings in front of the team’s.
“The coach at the time (David Teague) said there’s nothing wrong with him. Probably a little bit of immaturity and inexperience when he should’ve probably protected him.
“But to show that sort of maturity to just cop that criticism on the chin and keep putting one foot in front of the other and biting down on the mouthguard.
“He could’ve said at any stage put his hand up and said, ‘You know what? I’ve got issues with my back and I’m just going to get it right’.
“He didn’t do that. He put the team in front of his health and kept playing. That sort of stuff is huge in terms of how that talks to his character.”
Russell said it was the lack of training that got Cripps.
“It was as much that he couldn’t train for 3-4 weeks,” he said.
“He got himself up to play, but he couldn’t train for a couple of weeks beforehand and then between games. He missed a lot of work.”
Teague later admitted declaring Cripps was “fine” was “pretty average by me” and that was “one of my worst press conferences”.
POWER OF MIND
It was after Teague’s first game as caretaker coach when Cripps learned to appreciate the power of the mind.
Cripps was close with Brendon Bolton and when he was sacked after round 11 in 2019 the skipper felt shot mentally.
The Blues had won three out of their previous 44 games and Cripps endured the worst performance of his career in Bolton’s final game – kept to two kicks by Essendon tagger Dylan Clarke.
Cripps – with his head in his hands to avoid eye contact – told Russell on the Thursday he did not think he could play.
Driving to Marvel Stadium having decided to play, he still felt drained.
But Cripps decided as a leader of the club that the second he got out of the car he would bring energy and fun to the changerooms because – even if it felt manufactured.
Under Teague, they trailed the ladder-leading Brisbane Lions 40-3. Then, Cripps inspired a comeback for the ages. He had 39 disposals and kicked four second-half goals in a 15-point win.
Players enjoyed a few beers around a campfire in the carpark at the club that night and Cripps – now a psychology student – bought into the power of the mind.
He started reading self-help books including Seven habits of highly effective people and in lockdown completed a self-discovery high performance online course.
“The funny thing about ‘Crippa’ is as tough as some of those times were his outward positivity was really impressive,” Barker said.
“So he knew he was leading a club and regardless of what he was feeling his mindset and his positivity and his drive in front of the group was really important.”
RESEARCH KING
Cripps’ hunger for information was nothing new.
“His research on his opponents was ridiculous. Him and ‘Juddy’ (Chris Judd) were the two best at Carlton at the days leading into the game understanding their possible opponents,” Barker said.
“Him and Juddy on a Friday morning for a Saturday game would just wander in before anyone else got there, get on the database and do their own due diligence.
“Understanding where opposition ruckmen would hit a ball. Understanding where opposition go-to positions were, so if we weren’t on top in the ruck where he could get himself to shut them down.
“Understanding which other midfielders of ours could take advantage of some of theirs, given the scenarios that played out.
“So for me there’s no surprise why guys like this become as good as they are, and it’s investment in themselves.
“A lot of people say it’s sacrifice. I’d like to think it’s investment, and you don’t get outcomes unless you invest.”
BODY REBUILDS
Cripps’ experimentation extends to hot and cold therapy. He knows when to use each for different hormonal responses that are wanted over the week.
There is also ‘DNS’ (dynamic neuromuscular stabilisation) training. Luke Hodge swore by it in the second half of his career and Tom Mitchell reckons it helped him win the 2018 Brownlow Medal.
The theory is babies develop certain movement patterns and as life goes on postural changes and environmental factors make us go away from those basic patterns and move poorly.
Cripps spends 20 minutes doing the posture, movement and gait exercises during the week with and then again pre-game. The sessions are run by Robbie Aardoom and have helped change the tone of Cripps’ body.
Cripps has also experimented with his body shape. He was All-Australian in 2018-19, but in 2020 he slimmed down from 94kg to 91kg in a bid to boost his running power.
It didn’t work. Without that extra upper body muscle he lost his No. 1 weapon – his strength around the ball. Suddenly, it took far more energy to exert his dominance physically.
The hulk has returned ever since. But Cripps didn’t mind. It was worth trying and better than retiring with a ‘What if?’ regret.
The biggest transformation came after his first AFL season in 2014.
Cripps was overweight when he arrived at Carlton.
In fact, at draft camp in 2013 the Blues’ then-chief executive Greg Swann questioned to his recruiters whether they were really going to pick the fat bloke.
“I still remember (recruiter) Shane Rogers showed me some vision of you … and said, ‘Juddy’s getting a little bit older, this is the next big thing’,” then-captain Marc Murphy has said on his podcast.
“And then I saw you (Cripps) when you first turned up to the footy club, and it was chicken legs.
“I was like, ‘This bloke? Surely not’. But then after seeing you for, it might have been two or three sessions, I knew how good you were going to be. I knew that mentally you wanted to be the best.”
Cripps spent his draft year living with his older brother in Perth as a university student. His mum, Cath, would cook healthy frozen meals.
But often they stayed in the freezer as he ate Subway, Red Rooster and kebabs. When Carlton’s dietitian first asked Cripps to fill out what he ate it included an afternoon box of Shapes.
So late in 2013 Cripps asked lean teammate Andrew Walker for advice and basically did not eat a carbohydrate for 10 weeks in the off-season.
Cripps shed 6kg and put on 2kg of muscle. Full-cream milk was swapped for skim milk and carb breakfasts were scrapped on non-training days.
His mantra was ‘Why wait to be good?’ and the Blues were shocked at the nick he returned in for the 2015 pre-season.
“Sometimes you see that in spurts from young players, but for ‘Crippa’ his want for growth was continuous,” Barker said.
But then-coach Mick Malthouse played Cripps forward in round 1 and dropped him in round 2.
Officially he was a late out with a “sore back” – however the truth was the Blues still did not have full confidence he could cover the Subiaco grass.
Concerns over his running is why some clubs, including Collingwood, would not have drafted him.
Cripps returned in round 3 to collect 22 disposals as Chris Judd tweaked his hamstring.
In Judd’s absence the extractor had 33 disposals (23 contested), 11 tackles, eight clearances and kicked his first AFL goal across the ditch in Wellington in round 4.
Cripps crunched Nathan Wright and Luke Dunstan in strong tackles twice each and jumped over Sam Fisher to take a contested mark in attack.
In the final quarter Cripps collected the ball one-handed and placed a 20m handball in front of Lachie Henderson so it would sit up for him running into an open goal.
The exquisite handball appeared almost effortless.
In just Cripps’ sixth AFL game the Greg ‘Diesel’ Williams qualities talked up by the Blues on draft night were on show for literally the world to see.
Brownlow Medallist Gerard Healy gushed at Cripps from the Fox Footy commentary box and awarded him three votes for the Crowl-McDonald Medal on Anzac Day.
Cripps and Murphy each polled eight coaches’ votes, but Healy’s fellow voters Roger Vaughan (AAP) and Chris Connolly largely overlooked Cripps and so he had to settle for a Rising Star nomination.
Cripps smashed his time trial personal best in the 2022 pre-season on his way to the Brownlow Medal. That aerobic improvement allowed him to go after large speed and power gains.
“What is extraordinary is a lot of guys that are poor aerobically generally stay poor,” Russell said of his turnaround.
THE ROYAL HANDOVER
The royal handover from Judd became official only two months later. It took just one game.
Judd had torn his ACL in round 10 and in the club’s first match after his retirement it was Cripps who polled his maiden Brownlow Medal votes – opening his account with a three against Port Adelaide at the MCG (31 disposals, 12 tackles and nine clearances).
“He dominated, absolutely dominated,” Barker, who was caretaker coach at the time after Malthouse’s sacking, said.
“He’s still a young kid, we put him inside and I remember saying to Rob Wiley in the box, ‘Geez, this kid is a star’.
“The ironic part of that was the week before we played Adelaide and ‘Juddy’ did his ACL. It was almost like one absolute legend was leaving and this new kid was just rising.
“He’s a beast, obviously. His hunt and his hit at ground level is as good as I’ve seen up close.
“The only other guy at that level was probably ‘Vossy’. I had a year at Brissy with ‘Vossy’ and he was more dynamic than ‘Crippa’.
“But their want for the contest is just unbelievable. With guys like who that who are so good at contested possessions it’s a tough existence.
“He’s always at the coalface, so it takes a special kind of mindset.
“But he’s genuinely, genuinely tough – mentally and physically.
“I don’t know how else to say it. It just takes a special kind of mindset to repeatedly dial yourself into it. And he’s just he’s just got it, he’s tough.
“Off field he’s genuinely a very good, humble person. There are a few things that are really impressive about him.
“One of them is his love and his loyalty for his family.
“But when you get to meet his parents, Brad and Cath, you work out pretty quickly where he gets his backbone from.
“He’s a super human being.”
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