What’s up with Cripps?

Aug 20, 2007
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Different role? Hard tags? Reduced weight? Injured?

Thought there was a very interesting comment from Teague in the press conference this week talking about the role he is playing. But it’s deeper than that.

Looks incredibly frustrated and his marking effort early in the third quarter was poor at best.

There’s something not quite right.
 

slashin_velvet

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Different role? Hard tags? Reduced weight? Injured?

Thought there was a very interesting comment from Teague in the press conference this week talking about the role he is playing. But it’s deeper than that.

Looks incredibly frustrated and his marking effort early in the third quarter was poor at best.

There’s something not quite right.
Lost weight - lost bullocking power.

Also seems to have a shoulder injury which he is playing through and getting hard tagged.
 

Beer n Skittles

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Looks like he's playing injured to me.
Had 8 clearances 8 tackles 4 score involvements today so not like he's playing that poorly.

Also seems to me like we're playing a style of footy under Teague that reduces congestion, which hurts Cripps as that's where he does his best work.
 

ItsAllAboutMe

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You want to hope he is injured, but is playing like a playing struggling with carrying the additional burden of captaincy.. which is surprising because I thought with Doc coming in it would make things easier.. Additionally clubs have woken up to the type of player required to tag Paddy.
 

Red Bull

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Different role? Hard tags? Reduced weight? Injured?

Thought there was a very interesting comment from Teague in the press conference this week talking about the role he is playing. But it’s deeper than that.

Looks incredibly frustrated and his marking effort early in the third quarter was poor at best.

There’s something not quite right.

Possibly all of the above.
But his attitude isn’t great either.
Needs to get back to basics, playing for free’s and then complaining when you don’t get them isn’t Cripps as we need him ...
 
I think it's pretty obvious that he's playing with something that's not quite enough to keep him out of the game. And given our injury situation at the moment, they're keeping him in because they know he'll attract 1 or more players to him and free up the others a little. Not to mention that I think you'd have to tie him down to stop him running out unless he was completely f*****d.
 

AB_Blue

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Jun 26, 2011
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If we had another premier midfielder he would be rested

Cripps being Cripps won’t want to rest

Looks like he’s trying to do to much to get outside and burst from stoppages.

We need to get Dow in the side to do that and get Paddy to stay more inside


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Gavstar

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Sep 15, 2011
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If we had another premier midfielder he would be rested

Cripps being Cripps won’t want to rest

Looks like he’s trying to do to much to get outside and burst from stoppages.

We need to get Dow in the side to do that and get Paddy to stay more inside


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Yep we've failed to even raise a question in oppositions coaches minds should we tag any other midfielder than Cripps? Nope.

Yet another year of grinding him into the ground, no chop outs, no protection and no response from our team to manhandling of our Captain.
 

Bryce Bubbles

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Jun 4, 2018
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You want to hope he is injured, but is playing like a playing struggling with carrying the additional burden of captaincy.. which is surprising because I thought with Doc coming in it would make things easier.. Additionally clubs have woken up to the type of player required to tag Paddy.
I think your comment re struggling with captaincy call is way off. He has captain the club in years gone by and has killed it big time. I'd suggest it's a mixture of umpires f ing him over week in and week out and playing a little bit injured/sore. Even the way the umpires talk to him in a get on with it tone is so so disrespectful considering how he is treated most would have snapped big time.
 

Mr_Plow

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His main asset as a football player is size/strength in the contest as a 195cm midfielder. Trying too hard to be someone he is not which is detracting from what he is good at.

Stick to being the best inside midfielder in the competition, and if keen to expand game, develop some forward craft.

Don't bother with the faux explosive stuff, not his game. Back to fundamentals.
 
It's frustrating that we have a whole heap of other players stepping up and our two best players in Cripps and Docherty are struggling. You would have thought the extra support would compliment their games and see the whole team surge.

I do think our game plan is finding Cripps out a bit, and for the first time ever, I'm wondering how he fits and whether something has happened to make him unhappy. If he is unhappy, we need to get to the bottom of it and engineer a ripper trade that will help us for some time to come. Fremantle certainly has the players to make that happen. PLEASE, no paraphrasing about the lunacy of wanting to trade Cripps. I'm just wondering if Cripps needs congested footy and the starring role to be happy.
 

Gw2_James

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Sep 4, 2014
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On fox footy dermie said something along the lines of we've damaged his body, he wont be how he was before and carlton have accepted that. Not quite sure what he meant by that, wish i could watch what he said over again, maybe someone can find it if possible.
 
Aug 30, 2017
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On fox footy dermie said something along the lines of we've damaged his body, he wont be how he was before and carlton have accepted that. Not quite sure what he meant by that, wish i could watch what he said over again, maybe someone can find it if possible.
Could just be a combination of being sore and a bit out of form.

He hasn’t really had a sustained patch of being out of form before. This isn’t unusual, happens to top tier players all the time.

The thing will be when and how he turns it around, if that’s working through it or, if he’s really sore, having a week off, provided that week will help. If it’s something that needs multiple weeks then he probably plays through and tests in the post season break.
 
Nov 8, 2007
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It's frustrating that we have a whole heap of other players stepping up and our two best players in Cripps and Docherty are struggling. You would have thought the extra support would compliment their games and see the whole team surge.

I do think our game plan is finding Cripps out a bit, and for the first time ever, I'm wondering how he fits and whether something has happened to make him unhappy. If he is unhappy, we need to get to the bottom of it and engineer a ripper trade that will help us for some time to come. Fremantle certainly has the players to make that happen. PLEASE, no paraphrasing about the lunacy of wanting to trade Cripps. I'm just wondering if Cripps needs congested footy and the starring role to be happy.
ODN I won't pretend what you've said is offensive because you caveated it appropriately.

I do think that two factors have contributed to Cripps playing poorly:
1) It was a mistake to trim down. He wanted to be a more rounded player to increase his outside running capacity so he dropped some kgs. This was a mistake imo as he went from the most unstoppable inside mid in the game (10/10) to just a 8/10. Perhaps the thinner frame bumps him from a 6/10 to a 7/10 outside mid, but thats not what we need.

2) Part of his increased endurance is getting negated by shorter quarters and less fatigue. If we had full length quarters I think the extra running would have come in handy.

Maybe our gamestyle is affecting him, but seriously we are just not being as dominant at the clearances with him anymore. He's still a top 3-5 inside mid in the game, but he used to be outright no.1.

I think he got caught up in the discussion of being well rounded that he tried to average out his game too much. A commendable pursuit but would rather him get back to being he best inside mid in the game. The other string he can add to his bow is kicking for goal.
 

BigBreakfast

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He is highly rated in the AFL Pro rankings, 5th ahead of Fyfe, Danger, McCrae and Bont.
However, is tied for 52nd on Footywire Fantasy.

What does that tell us? SFA

He looks like he is labouring but was never known for burst speed despite losing weight to increase speed. The run and spread style might be finding him out, as was stated earlier.

Living in the middle so he would not say he is being played out of position. He would seem to be maximised by being on either end of the running style: feeding to runners or marking the final product in the forward line. His kicking woes are relatively easilt rectified with repetition and greater opportunity in game. That run up... Jeez.

Weighted down by the burden of captaincy? Rubbish. How would we ever know anyway.

My biggest concern is his tendancy to play and plead for free kicks and become embroiled in a combative style of game. He gets distracted too easily, compromising him and the team. Part of his growth to overcome this mental adversity.
 
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