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 , 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 AFLPA 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. In 2019, he was awarded the Leigh Matthews Trophy with 832 votes.
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
2022–2023: 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 .
2024–present: Record-breaking Brownlow win In 2024 Cripps had another standout year, averaging 8 clearances and 28.8 disposals a game. He came second in the
AFL Coaches Association's Champion Player award, the
AFL Players' Association MVP award and the
AFLPA Best Captain award. He was also the vice captain for the
2024 all-Australian team. Going into the
2024 Brownlow night Cripps was one of the favourites to win. He ended up tallying 45 votes, the most any player has ever received in the three votes system, securing his second Brownlow. Cripps also won his fifth
John Nicholls Medal in 2024, equalling the record held by the award's namesake,
John Nicholls. ==Statistics==