Patrick Cripps a Carlton great in the making, draws comparison to Greg “Diesel” Williams

PATRICK Cripps is a Carlton great in the making — and if you don’t believe me, just ask Chris Judd, writes Shane Crawford.

Carlton v Melbourne

CHRIS Judd watched Carlton’s Round 1 clash with Richmond on his laptop from a beach in Dubai, but even though he was thousands of miles away from the MCG there was one thing he couldn’t escape noticing.

Patrick Cripps.

The retired Blues great took delight in seeing 21-year-old Cripps cracking into every contest, seemingly getting better as every match grew more physical.

“When the game was in the balance, he just seemed to will himself to have more of an influence,” Judd told me this week.

“Usually with young players, it takes four years for the penny to drop, but for him it dropped from the end of his first season.

“He is so serious about getting success as an individual, and from a team point of view. For someone his age, he is elite in terms of the way he uses his body and with his vision by hand.”

Cripps is already one of the best contested players in the AFL at an age when most young footballers are just worried about getting a kick.

Just watching him closely last week, as I have over the past year and a bit, he reminded me so much of my former teammate Sam Mitchell, and, by extension the man Mitchell is often compared to, Greg “Diesel” Williams.

To my eye, if Mitchell is Diesel Mark II, as David Parkin used to say, then Cripps might as well be dubbed Diesel Mark III.

That might sound a stretch given he has played only 24 AFL games. I can assure you it isn’t, as I am comfortable in saying that Cripps has the potential to be just as decorated as the other two contested kings.

I asked Juddy about the comparison with Mitchell and Williams. He didn’t shy away from it, saying: “He is every bit as hard as Greg Williams and Sam Mitchell.”

Patrick Cripps is already on his way to becoming a Carlton great.

Patrick Cripps has been compared to Greg Williams. Picture: Ray Titus

Judd believes his own career-ending knee injury last season helped Cripps: “The best thing for Patrick was when I got injured, he got more of a go.”

Some kids might have wilted. Cripps went on to win what I am sure will be the first of many Carlton best and fairests, becoming the youngest Blue to do it since John Nicholls in 1959.

He is in rare company to win a club champion award before his 21st birthday, among them Michael Voss, Andrew McLeod, Tim Watson, Nick Riewoldt, Kevin Murray and Jack Dyer.

Cripps’ superb 2015 season came off the back of him personally hiring a speed coach the previous summer to work on his running.

He’s not super fast, probably never will be. But put a ball into the equation and he’s bloody hard to stop. He is so strong around the contest that opposition teams are now working out ways to have ruckmen tap the ball away from him.

His contested work is freakish. To be able to wrestle for the ball with players who have had 10 years experience on him, and to win out on most counts is extraordinary. He can only get stronger in the future, too.

Unfortunately, Champion Data wasn’t around when a young Greg Williams showed us how good he was at getting the ball. He had 38 touches in his first AFL game, with Geelong.

Williams went on to win two Brownlow Medals, a Norm Smith and just about everything else during stints with Sydney and Carlton.

But if you look at Cripps’ record over his first 24 games and Mitchell’s over that same period, you can see why Carlton supporters are so excited.

He’s got a young ‘Mitch’ covered in terms of possessions, contested possessions, tackles and just about every other comparison. And we all know how good a player Mitchell has turned out to be, winning just about every award imaginable, other than a Brownlow Medal (which still could happen for him).

Patrick Cripps celebrates a goal in Carlton’s Round 1 loss. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

By the end of his career, I can see Cripps — barring serious injury — being almost as decorated as Williams and Mitchell.

He’ll be a Carlton captain, too, but there is plenty of time for that.

The scary thing is he is almost 20cm taller than Williams, and 16cm taller than Mitchell, which provides a few more strings to his bow.

Imagine being able to slip Cripps into the forward line at times. He has a got a good grab, and it could be a super weapon for coach Brendon Bolton to consider in the future.

For the time being, having him in the midfield is enough. He mainly gets the opposition best run-with now, even though the Blues still have Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs.

Carlton botched much of its drafting over many years, but they have struck gold with their No. 13 pick from the 2013 draft.

It is among the best decisions the club has made since its last flag in 1995 — which incidentally was the year Cripps was born.

Now the next decision they need to make is to lock him away for life — by offering him a rolling contract that runs for a decade, or maybe more. He is locked in until the end of 2019. If I were the Blues, I would extend that to the end of 2027, just to stop Fremantle and West Coast from thinking he could ever return to WA.

He won’t. He will go on to become one of Carlton’s greatest player of all-time, if he can channel his first 24 games into the next 12-15 seasons. And along the way he might help deliver the Blues’ elusive 17th AFL flag.

THE THREE “DIESELS”

Contested possession kings

GREG WILLIAMS

First 24 games — with Geelong (1984-85)

Average disposals: 27

Contested disposals, clearances, score involvements, tackles were not recorded during this time.

Honours: Brownlow Medal (1986, 1994); AFLPA MVP (1985, 1994); Geelong best and fairest (1985); Carlton best and fairest (1994), Norm Smith Medal (1995); AFL Team of the Century (interchange); Sydney and Carlton Team of the Century (centre); E.J. Whitten Medal (1987); All-Australian (1986-87); premiership player (1995)

SAM MITCHELL

First 24 games — with Hawthorn (2002-03)

Average disposals: 14.7

Average contested possessions: 8

Average clearances: 5

Average tackles: 3.9

Average goals: 0.2

Honours: AFL Rising Star (2003); Hawthorn best and fairest (2006, 2009, 2011, 2012); All-Australian (2011, 2013, 2015), equal second in Brownlow Medal (2012); third in Brownlow Medal (2015); premiership player (2008, 2013-15); Liston Trophy (2002

PATRICK CRIPPS

First 24 games — with Carlton (2014-16)

Average disposals: 21.9

Average contested possessions: 12.7

Average clearances: 5.9

Average tackles: 4.6

Average goals: 0.3

Honours: Carlton best and fairest (2015); runner-up in AFL Rising Star (2015)

Stats: Champion Data

EVOLUTION OF THE CONTESTED KINGS

Diesel Mark I — 1980s and 1990s: Greg Williams (176cm)

Diesel Mark II — 2000s and 2010s: Sam Mitchell (179cm)

Diesel Mark III — 2010s: Patrick Cripps (195cm)

Originally published as Patrick Cripps a Carlton great in the making, draws comparison to Greg “Diesel” Williams