I think if you watched Carlton games this year (instead of looking at out of context stats) it was pretty clear that Cripps had the perfect storm to poll votes. The storm includes the following:
1. Cripps was in perfect health and good form right across the year; meanwhile
2. His 'flashier' team-mates who might steal votes were all a bit off due to injury. Walsh missed 5 games and looked sluggish when playing. Cerra was basically out all year. TDK got injured and missed the last 8 games just as he was getting a bit of flashy buzz. Curnow was hampered by an injury that limited his movement. Docherty and Martin didn't play a full game between them. Even Saad and Acres had issues. So who was Cripps competing with for votes? The Carlton players who were fit, healthy and in good form for most of the year just aren't vote getters: Hewett, Kennedy, Weitering, Owies, Newman, and McKay (who just doesn't put it together for 4 quarters to get the votes imo).
3. Carlton changed how they used Cripps, and in particular copied Collingwood's recipe with Daicos. From what I saw, there was a conscious effort to rest Cripps (and TDK) for long patches in the 2nd and 3rd quarter, then put the best possible midfield combination together for an extended 8-10 minute burst either half-way through the 3rd (if losing) or the start of the 4th (if winning) and try and blow the game open. There were 8-10 games where this worked - and Cripps polled heavily in all of them, even in a couple of cases in games where he was otherwise not that great. This is a clear recipe for votes (as we've seen with Daicos).
4. Just when he was tiring and form sliding a little (and most winners struggle to sustain it for the full 23 games), Carlton had an all-time injury crisis (ie: 6 injureies in one match vs Hawthorn) and he flipped into 'Beast Mode' for the last 4 rounds to try and drag the team to finals. This isn't actually all that conducive to Carlton winning games against good teams, but in the last month or two his game time jumped from 75-80% to an average of 87% and his efforts were enough for a couple of BOGs against crap teams, and a couple of 1-voters in losses.
Then add in the following:
Again, it's just the perfect storm. Decent team in solid form, but with Cripps the sole 'flashy' player, perfect fitness and health all year, game plan set to make him the 'hammer' and some intangibles that also help him get votes.
1. Cripps was in perfect health and good form right across the year; meanwhile
2. His 'flashier' team-mates who might steal votes were all a bit off due to injury. Walsh missed 5 games and looked sluggish when playing. Cerra was basically out all year. TDK got injured and missed the last 8 games just as he was getting a bit of flashy buzz. Curnow was hampered by an injury that limited his movement. Docherty and Martin didn't play a full game between them. Even Saad and Acres had issues. So who was Cripps competing with for votes? The Carlton players who were fit, healthy and in good form for most of the year just aren't vote getters: Hewett, Kennedy, Weitering, Owies, Newman, and McKay (who just doesn't put it together for 4 quarters to get the votes imo).
3. Carlton changed how they used Cripps, and in particular copied Collingwood's recipe with Daicos. From what I saw, there was a conscious effort to rest Cripps (and TDK) for long patches in the 2nd and 3rd quarter, then put the best possible midfield combination together for an extended 8-10 minute burst either half-way through the 3rd (if losing) or the start of the 4th (if winning) and try and blow the game open. There were 8-10 games where this worked - and Cripps polled heavily in all of them, even in a couple of cases in games where he was otherwise not that great. This is a clear recipe for votes (as we've seen with Daicos).
4. Just when he was tiring and form sliding a little (and most winners struggle to sustain it for the full 23 games), Carlton had an all-time injury crisis (ie: 6 injureies in one match vs Hawthorn) and he flipped into 'Beast Mode' for the last 4 rounds to try and drag the team to finals. This isn't actually all that conducive to Carlton winning games against good teams, but in the last month or two his game time jumped from 75-80% to an average of 87% and his efforts were enough for a couple of BOGs against crap teams, and a couple of 1-voters in losses.
Then add in the following:
- Cripps is a genuinely respected, nice guy, who has been around long enough for the umpires to share that respect
- Cripps is quite noticeable: 196cm midfielder, who plays 'in and under' but tends to hang onto the ball long enough to be 'noticed' rather than firing out a quick handball;
- Cripps does some other 'odd' things that umpires would see: like taking ruck hitouts, being a marking target 1-1 on from kick-ins, etc.
- Cripps gets almost NONE of his disposals deep in defence. This is an observation as much as anything (and perhaps a criticism even?) but the umpires broadly seem to heavily underweight or almost ignore D50 disposals, including intercept possessions
Again, it's just the perfect storm. Decent team in solid form, but with Cripps the sole 'flashy' player, perfect fitness and health all year, game plan set to make him the 'hammer' and some intangibles that also help him get votes.
