What’s up with Cripps?

[FRUMPY]

Hopefully all the Cripps haters in here now get off his back and get behind our loyal skipper.

Only one way he wins some of us back. Hopefully he pulls his finger out and shows signs he will be a great player for the next 4 years and not the rubbish he has dealt the last 18 months.....

Signing for 4 years doesnt change the way he has been playing

 

[ItsAllAboutMe]

Only one way he wins some of us back. Hopefully he pulls his finger out and shows signs he will be a great player for the next 4 years and not the rubbish he has dealt the last 18 months.....

Signing for 4 years doesnt change the way he has been playing

He doesnt have to win anyone back, anyone that has jumped off is a plastic fan that doesnt see that our loyal skipper is putting his body through hell and trying his guts out for the team.. There is no doubt parts of his game need coaching and adjustment however those that have questioned his loyalty and throwing pot shots should all GGF.. .

 

[thylacine60]

It's official now. Thread up, Aph.

 

[thylacine60]

I said......

 

[katmanblue]

I said......

What?

 

[Gethelred]

I said......

Wasn't listening.

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

Should the Carlton MC consider giving Setters/Stocker/Kennedy a go as No1 inside mid. I’m not 100% sold myself but a case is building to at least try a 4 week period.

This consideration is based purely on Cripps struggling and the stalled development of Kennedy, Stocker and Setterfield being held back in other roles which don’t suit. It is not the fact they will be better, it is about giving them a chance to show they are better given Cripps 18 month sample size of form. Most indicators show Cripps going backwards for some time. The 3 players in question aren’t first or second year players so could show up.

This is not a troll topic as Cripps has carried us and earnt the tickets. But outlined below some key stats does have me worried.

Case against Cripps in 2021 (footywire stats):

• Cripps is ranked number one in the league for clangers (6 a game is a lot)
• Cripps is ranked number 6 in the league for frees against (given most of these are in middle, they lead to inside 50s so it is important)
• Cripps is ranked a lowly 201 in metres gained (not great versus peers for a key midfield trait)
• Cripps is arguably the slowest mid in the league when more than ever speed is required in midfield transition
• Carlton is one of the worst teams in giving up scores from transition which points towards our mids. Can Cripps catch anyone at all on the spread?
• The eye test is Cripps has changed over the last 3 seasons from high success rate of get ball then handball successfully to target. To now, get ball, and then 50% failure of run/twist/turn/fall over/miss target.
• Cripps is ranked 110 for goal assists and around 160 for goals. Not great vs midfield peers.
• Cripps is currently averaging 24 disposals a game which is very low given he has most average time on ground compared to midfield peers . If you reduce his time on ground to the average for a peer mid, he would struggle for 20 possessions. Of his 24 disposals there is an average of 6 clangers out of those 24. Of those that are not clangers he still has poor disposal efficiency on top of clangers. I’d argue on the eye test that only 10 possessions at most a game are actually to clear advantage.
• 2 further eye tests. Cripps is dump kicking the ball a lot. This leads to counter attack which the other clubs love and are pointing out in the media. The second eye test is the game has changed to fast transition open play. Without ball in hand and away from stoppage, he is incredibly slow.
• If Cripps is injured. Rest him.

The case for Cripps

• Cripps is still good in stoppage plays. Ranked 32 in tackles. Cripps is ranked 8th in centre clearances. Cripps is 24 in non centre clearance
• Cripps is ranked 34th in score involvements
• Don’t ever bloody question Cripps who has carried us
• Cripps is injured, get off his back
• Cripps will turn around and has enough tickets for us to persist with
• Stocker, Setters and Kennedy are not a patch on Cripps so NOT ON MY LIFE

My Biased Analysis

• In 2019, Cripps was 1st for all clearance categories. 11th for tackles. These two key indicators are dropping for him through to 2021. Because Cripps is so slow on the spread (linked to opposition transition goals) he needs to be incredibly good at clearances to offset that. He isn’t that good in 2021.
• In 2019 Cripps became a powerhouse and a one man band for Carlton. I think since then all opposition teams set their structures against him specifically and now run off him. Because of a lack of variety, their stoppage set ups are beautifully designed against him as he is the constant threat.
• I think with the combo of Ed and Cripps means opposition teams literally do analyse us and come to the conclusion that it is not the end of the world if Carlton win stoppages because of disposal efficiency being so low, and clangers so high. We dump/clanger kick a lot. (Both Ed/Cripps are high offenders)
• Teague should allow Cripps to rest/reset. Others should be shown faith in aside from Cripps. The match committee is willing to play hardball on Kennedy and say ‘you are not doing enough to get in and Cripps is in your way’. So they are happy to be direct with Kennedy and slap him down. It shouldn’t be too much to be direct with Cripps when all KPIs are screaming out that he is struggling.
• Our club is soft on Cripps right now and soft on a few others. Note: If he is injured, bloody rest him.
• There is something to be said for the inside mid role creating a player. It becomes an easier task for the likes of Setters, Stocker, Kennedy if you just say “see ball get ball” (a la Tom Mitchell). Chase/Tackle someone else with ball. With that role, all three of stockers/Setters/Kennedys possession counts would go up. The test is about whether any of these three can come up with more than about 10 possessions a game that go to advantage. And can they chase going the other way to put on implied pressure on their midfield transition kicker.
• I’m talking about a 4 week trial and a rest for Cripps. Then more analysis. The stats above are a little soul destroying.

In regards to clangers (free kicks against and turnovers?), yes, 6 is high, but Danger and dusty always rank highly on those.
Cripps gets a few frees against that other players don't always get. He gets the falling in an opponents back free all the time, even when he misses their back. Also gets a lot of high contact frees in tackles on smaller guys when they lower themselves or raise the arm. A lot of that is because of his size and strength. The contact looks a lot worse.
The turnovers I think come back to him doing the high, blind around the body kicks to nobody and holding onto the ball too long in a tackle and either disposing of it off balance, or in a rushed manner so as not to be caught HTB.
Oliver and Petracca are both top 5 and getting just under 6 a game each. If they can manage to stay undefeated while their two best mids rack up nearly 12 clangers combined per game, I reckon 6 from Crippa isn't that big a deal.

 

[thylacine60]

Long as everyone knows I was in first with the news.....

 

[Aphrodite]

Long as everyone knows I was in first with the news.....

What news?

 

[thylacine60]

the news

 

[bmaurizio]

the news

4year contract was mentioned, is it correct ?

 

[Aphrodite]

the news

I said!

What news?

 

[thylacine60]

my news

 

[thylacine60]

wouldn't be right for me to disclose further........

 

[katmanblue]

wouldn't be right for me to disclose further........

But you were dis close.

 

[LFTWNG11]

How does this guy escape criticism? Leading by example in the conditional effort on the defensive side of the game for the last 18 months.

 

[Gethelred]

I am concerned that what we're seeing is the game moving past him.

Now, people have thought this about players before. Travis Boak was on the edge of getting traded to Geelong and the AFL establishment thought he was inches from retiring; flip to now, and he's one of the best regarded captains in the comp and took the comp by storm last season and this year. Form fluctuates, and the current competition trend is away from contests and into gut running and pace, neither of which suits him.

But if the trend becomes the new status quo, he will not be the player he was before purely because his defensive deficiencies - which were always there - are magnified in this new environment. Clearance numbers do not matter; what matters is the type and quality of the clearance; power does not matter, but endurance and speed does. Dustin Martin's input this year has been reduced, purely because the only way he can use his power is in a marking contest; it's simply not as useful to belt his way out of a stoppage anymore.

We'll see, but that's another grey cloud for this dreary Monday morning.

 

[blueblooded]

How does this guy escape criticism? Leading by example in the conditional effort on the defensive side of the game for the last 18 months.

said it in the game day thread yesterday, his lack of workrate in transition is alarming. It's absolutely no wonder we're easy to transition against when our captain and so called prime mover just flat out refuses to work back and chase...or actually can't.

Last week as an example there was behind the goals footage of him on Kennedy from Sydney, just stopped chasing him about 20m into a run, Kennedy runs through 50 unmarked kicks an open goal.

there was a play yesterday highlighted on FOX where he's on Sheed, drops off him, doesn't chase, Sheed peels off him into the 50, Williams tries to scramble to pick him up but it's too late he just takes an easy uncontested mark and kicks a goal. We work hard for our goals because other teams make you work hard, our captain is the perfect example of why we are where we are.

for mine he's a $650-$700k player at best because he's a one trick pony who's a liability in many aspects of the game including very importantly defending and transition, not to mention his footskills are average. It's the elephant in the room here.

 

[jj1978]

From an analyst point of view you've sometimes got to work with recent trends and data. Time changes many factors and the most important data is the most recent, sure there is a possibility that more historical data is more proven (that the current is an outlier) but more often than not recent trends are a better indicator.

Thanks Cripps for your service, but if you choose to move on and start afresh no grudges here! If you stay and demand huge money without it being performance based, then I will have a grudge.

 

[branedotorg]

I am concerned that what we're seeing is the game moving past him.

Now, people have thought this about players before. Travis Boak was on the edge of getting traded to Geelong and the AFL establishment thought he was inches from retiring; flip to now, and he's one of the best regarded captains in the comp and took the comp by storm last season and this year. Form fluctuates, and the current competition trend is away from contests and into gut running and pace, neither of which suits him.

But if the trend becomes the new status quo, he will not be the player he was before purely because his defensive deficiencies - which were always there - are magnified in this new environment. Clearance numbers do not matter; what matters is the type and quality of the clearance; power does not matter, but endurance and speed does. Dustin Martin's input this year has been reduced, purely because the only way he can use his power is in a marking contest; it's simply not as useful to belt his way out of a stoppage anymore.

We'll see, but that's another grey cloud for this dreary Monday morning.

The thing that keeps Martin relevant is a 'water carrier', as cantona called deschamps, someone dedicated to doing his dirty work so he can stay danger-side or a kick forward of play.

We don't have the brains-trust, the players or the gameplan to build a system that allows for shifting like that.

 

[Big Red is back]

Cripps remains a limited but valuable player. He isn't being used properly. He needs to be rotated far more heavily used similar to Dane Swan was at the pies, short sharp 5 to 6 minute bursts. What this means is some other players could be rotated less which is pretty easy, as the number of wasted rotations we have of deep fwd who probably get more tired running off could be reduced to allow for him to operate in shorter bursts.

Also, our lack of defensive structure which is addressed in numerous threads further exposes his lack of endurance running and leg speed.

 

[sparkyblue]

Issues regarding Cripps' tank are valid, and make the questions regarding our style of play even more pointed. If you have a contested beast who can't/won't track an opponent, why would you implement an expansive style of play with quick ball movement that leaves you vulnerable on the counter? This is coaching 101 stuff....

If he's the talisman you want to build around, set the bloke up for success and narrow the field of play and play a contested, congested gameplan.

 

[Blue1980]

The thing that keeps Martin relevant is a 'water carrier', as cantona called deschamps, someone dedicated to doing his dirty work so he can stay danger-side or a kick forward of play.

We don't have the brains-trust, the players or the gameplan to build a system that allows for shifting like that.

Ideally someone like setters should be the “water carrier” sort of guy.

 

[Pixelshooter]

Gerard Healy just made a suggestion re Cripps...play him as a ruck/forward in tandem with De Koning. Actually not the dumbest idea I've ever heard. Seems clear he's struggling with the pace of the game as a pure mid fielder right at the minute. Could be worth a punt...that way we could get rid of Pittonet.

 

[CarltonBlooz]

Gerard Healy just made a suggestion re Cripps...play him as a ruck/forward in tandem with De Koning. Actually not the dumbest idea I've ever heard. Seems clear he's struggling with the pace of the game as a pure mid fielder right at the minute. Could be worth a punt...that way we could get rid of Pittonet.

Cripps unfortunately couldn't kick a set shot to save his life if he was stuck on a desert island, as for rucking I'm not sure how that would go. I do recall Cripps having to do it a few times over the years.

I'm not sure you could solely blame the pace for Cripps form, he seems to be very indecisive a lot of the time going forward, turnovers city too which is criminal from a captain.

Getting better, but never been the same after the weight loss, ah 2019 Cripps to have you back in the side.

I doubt we'll get rid of Pinnochet anytime soon, ruck stocks are thin as it is, Mirkov might be something one day and not sure how long Levi would have left in the side.