Patrick Cripps built tough by Northampton football factory as country legends praise second Brownlow success

Patrick Cripps paid tribute to his hometown Northampton and the resilience farming life helped instil in him after being crowned the Brownlow medallist for a second time. And now his hometown and its football legends are paying tribute to the boy from outback Western Australia who rode out the lows at Carlton and pulled the powerhouse back towards the top. Cripps won the AFL’s most prized individual gong in a landslide and a record count on Monday night, two years after he claimed it for the first time. He told a crowded ballroom he didn’t know it at the time, but some difficult years on his family farm helped shape the way he handled the dark and dry earlier years at the Blues. “My parents are great role models, I learnt a lot off them,” he said. “It’s not until you get older you really appreciate the upbringing you have. Obviously growing up on a wheat and sheep farm, it doesn’t always go to plan with farming, they talk about optimism and hope but half the time they put a crop in not knowing if it’s going to rain. “Without knowing at the time, we went through some tough times when I was a kid, but I never knew it with my old man, as well as my Mum. “I carry a lot of lessons from my childhood now and something even at Carlton it’s probably the same, I had some lean years there for a while, but you think the future is brighter and you work hard towards your goal then you can really change the way things go.” Northampton is WA’s greatest footy factory. The town of around 800 people has produced legends like West Coast premiership players Jamie Cripps, and inaugural Eagle Andrew Lockyer. Hasleby has declared Cripps is the greatest of the lot — even before his second medal. “They’re very proud of his achievements, as they are of all the players who have played in the AFL,” the Dockers great told The West Australian. “He was already Northampton’s best, when you have that consistency, that leadership. “Josh Kennedy is a very close second, but you’re in rare air when you talk about two Brownlow Medals.” Hasleby said this was Cripps’ most consistent season and believes he can get even better. But where Cripps speaks about resilience, Hasleby thought his career may have been on the wane as injuries mounted and the Blues continued to battle. “Many thought, and I thought, he might have been in trouble a few years ago with the game sort of catching up to him,” he said. “He had some injuries, but he is now probably kicking more goals than ever and probably having more forward impact than ever as well and that’s a credit to his training regime and those around him.” When their town was decimated by Cyclone Seroja in 2021, Cripps was on the phone right away. Lockyer says of Cripps: “He is not just a really good footballer, he is a ripper of a bloke”. “A great human being. When Cyclone Seroja hit we all banded together and he wasn’t shy in putting his hand up and asking ‘What can I do?,” he said. “His family is an absolute ripper of family. His dad Brad and his mum Cath, really, really good people. His brothers Dan and Josh, the same.” Hasleby says what the town has achieved in the sport has been “very special” and Lockyer believes football is Northampton’s lifeblood and that’s where they went when Seroja hit. “It really is a footy town, a real footy town, and everyone revolves around the football club. Kids and people of my age, we all went to the footy club because that’s where everyone gravitated to. “We all played footy there and we had some really good teachers who taught us really good skills and passed it down, I reckon. It’s been phenomenal the success.”