A STIRRING second half of the season will have Carlton full of confidence with 2019 coming to a close.

Familiar faces fired in Navy Blue while the Club’s emerging youngsters owned the future in a campaign which saw the Blues record seven wins for the year.

With the home-and-away season now over, we’re going through every player who featured for Carlton at senior level in 2019. 

Here’s the year that was for Carlton’s No. 9, co-captain Patrick Cripps. 

GAMES

2019: 20

Career: 101

GOALS

2019: 13

Career: 47

KEY AFL STATISTICS (averages in brackets):

Disposals: 560 (28.0) Marks: 62 (3.1) Contested possessions: 340 (17) Tackles: 123 (6.2) Clearances: 170 (8.5) Inside 50s: 62 (3.1)

OVERVIEW

There are three things you can rely on in life: death, taxes and Patrick Cripps’ dominance. 

Carrying the full load of the captaincy in co-captain Sam Docherty’s absence, Cripps proved that he was more than up to the task of leading the Blues for the 2019 season.

The midfield bull let his on-field performance do the talking in what was another stellar year. Come the end of 2019, Cripps was acknowledged as the Most Valuable Player in the competition by his peers, while also named an All Australian for the second consecutive year.

Despite missing two games with a foot injury, Cripps once again led the Carlton for most disposals, contested possessions and clearances.

His impact spread further than just the midfield, providing the Blues with another scoring option to finish the year with 13 goals.

BEST PERFORMANCE

There were plenty to choose from, but it’s hard to look beyond Cripps’ Round 12 performance against the Brisbane Lions.

After all, it was a showing which was voted as the Best Individual Performance in the AFL Fan Awards.

The co-captain put a difficult week at Ikon Park behind him to deliver one of the performances of his outstanding career to date. 

Brisbane had no answer for the Carlton star as he powered his way to a spectacular 38 disposals (16 contested), eight clearances and four second-half goals. 

SEASON HIGHLIGHT

It was only fitting that the co-captain ended with the ball in his hand following the team’s Round 12 win over the Brisbane Lions.

While Cripps’ shot on goal after the siren went astray, there would have been few better moments for Carlton fans to see the co-captain’s fists in the air in celebration surrounded by the entire team.

THEY SAID IT

“You’ve got guys like Fyfe, Dangerfield and Neale at the top of their games. But if you had to pick one, and it’s a bloody hard pick, I’d be picking Cripps.”

It was fair praise from Carlton champion Greg Williams, who spoke to the AFL Players website following Cripps’ MVP triumph.

“Patrick is a monster.A lot of players do basic practice, but it’s just not going to get them to the level that they need to get to: Patty wants to take things to that next level,” Williams said.