PATRICK Cripps has enhanced his reputation among the game’s greatest Brownlow Medal performers.
On a night where Collingwood’s Nick Daicos won the medal, Cripps was once again amongst the competition’s best pollers, achieving a fifth top-five finish.
Polling 27 votes, Cripps entered the top six in the history of the Brownlow Medal for career votes, surpassing Sam Mitchell, Robert Harvey, Joel Selwood, Dustin Martin and Chris Judd.
With 231 votes over the course of his career, Cripps extended his lead as the Blues’ all-time greatest poller (he now sits 87 ahead of Craig Bradley) on an evening where Sam Walsh also continued to elevate his standing.
Now sitting inside Carlton’s top 10, Walsh now has 99 career votes on the back of a strong finish to the season, polling in the last three games.
At the other end of things was Jagga Smith, whose exceptional first season was marked with 12 votes - including three best-on-ground performances.
It didn’t take long for the first ever “Carlton, J. Smith, three votes” to be called, with the AFL Rising Star winner getting the maximum votes in Round 1 - his second career game.
There were also first career votes for Marc Pittonet (Round 4) and Harry Dean (Round 16).
Round by round votes
Opening Round: Justin McInerney | Errol Gulden | Brodie Grundy
Round 1: Jagga Smith | Patrick Cripps | Tim Taranto
Round 3: Kozzie Pickett | Max Gawn | Sam Walsh
Round 4: Luke Davies-Uniacke | Harry Sheezel | Marc Pittonet
Round 5: Josh Rachele | Izak Rankine | Jordan Dawson
Round 6: Nick Daicos | Sam Walsh | Jamie Elliott
Round 7: Shai Bolton | Luke Jackson | Sam Walsh
Round 8: Rowan Marshall | Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera | Mitch Owens
Round 9: Lachie Neale | Harry McKay | Patrick Cripps
Round 10: Patrick Cripps | Ollie Florent | Jagga Smith
Round 11: Patrick Cripps | Jason Horne-Francis | Jagga Smith
Round 12: Patrick Cripps | Bailey Smith | Sam Walsh
Round 13: George Hewett | Sam Durham | Harry McKay
Round 15: Sam Walsh | Patrick Cripps | George Hewett
Round 16: Patrick Cripps | George Hewett | Harry Dean
Round 17: George Hewett | Patrick Cripps | Jagga Smith
Round 18: Jack Ginnivan | Connor MacDonald | Will Day
Round 19: Nick Daicos | Patrick Cripps | Jordan De Goey
Round 20: Patrick Cripps | George Hewett | Matt Rowell
Round 21: Jagga Smith | George Hewett | Harry McKay
Round 22: Sam Walsh | Patrick Cripps | Max Hall
Round 23: Ed Richards | Sam Walsh | Patrick Cripps
Round 24: Jagga Smith | Ben Ainsworth | Sam Walsh
Carlton leaderboard
27 - Patrick Cripps
14 - Sam Walsh
13 - George Hewett
12 - Jagga Smith
4 - Harry McKay
2 - Ben Ainsworth
2 - Ollie Florent
1 - Harry Dean
1 - Marc Pittonet
