Mid West players in AFL finals: Northampton’s Patrick Cripps, Towns’ Jack Martin one win away from grand final

Only two Mid West players remain in the AFL finals race, with Carlton teammates Patrick Cripps and Jack Martin one win away from reaching the grand final. Saturday night’s preliminary final against Brisbane will be the pair’s third final and the biggest match of their careers so far — a journey that has seen them come a long way from starring as juniors and teenagers in the GNFL for Northampton and Towns. Cripps and Martin — the latter returning from a one-week suspension — will be key players as the Blues feature in their first preliminary final since 2000. Cripps was in dominant in the semifinal win against Melbourne, earning four coaches votes, but his junior coach for the Rams, Bob Hasleby, said that was the type of player he has always been. “(Cripps) just had this amazing ability, he just hunted the ball from start to finish, the whole game (he) never slowed down,” he said. “Every quarter he would come in, and had sweat pouring off him, most of the other kids are all happy dancing around, he was just fully focused and took in everything you said.” From a young age, Hasleby said Cripps’ efforts stood out. “As a five-year-old, he was just as good defensively as he was offensively and did everything,” he said. “People think I’m kidding but he had everything you wanted, as a five, six-year-old, he had the second and third effort, he knew where the ball was going, he used it well, kicked it into the right places.” While Cripps had the size and speed on other kids, that wasn’t what made the Northampton product and 2022 Brownlow medallist special. “Every junior coach has one in every team that everyone’s looking at them saying, this kids going to play AFL, because they’re big, can kick further and run faster,” Hasleby said. “But they don’t have what he had, in that desire to do whatever was necessary, mainly defensively, you just don’t see it in other kids.” Now the captain at Carlton, his leadership skills have been evident since his junior days. “The other thing that stood out from a very young age was leadership, he would bring his teammates into it from the get go,” Hasleby said. “When (Carlton) were no good, he used to pick them up and carry them the whole time, and now he’s got them coming along with him. “More credit to him that he’s inclusive and has sort of dragged them up to his standards.” Now taking on Brisbane, Hasleby said that it will be an uphill battle for the Blues, but he will be “barracking like hell”. Carlton will enjoy the addition of having Martin return to the side, after serving his one match ban for a hit on Sydney defender Nick Blakey in their elimination final win. Towns team mate from Martin’s GNFL days and current Bulldogs league coach Dale Baynes said it was “very out of character for him to get suspended, but having that week off, it’s probably brought that hunger back”. Martin, originally from Broome, moved to Geraldton in his young teenage years and stood out from day one. “From the moment he started playing, you could tell that he was an exceptional talent,” Baynes said. “I had a lot to do with him at Clontarf as well, whenever we played a scratch match at Clontarf, whatever team he was on convincingly won. . . this is going back to when he’s 13 years old.” Baynes, who played a game for Collingwood, said Martin was one of the best talents he had seen, and spoke highly of his character. “He was an exceptional talent all the way through, he was hungry to learn and his ability just stood out, head and shoulders above anybody else,” he said. “When we won grand finals, he was still going to school the next day. . . he didn’t get carried away and enjoy the party scene. “He was unbelievable, we knew he was destined for bigger things then Geraldton footy and even bigger things then WAFL footy.” While acknowledging how he struggled when he first arrived at the Blues, Baynes said that Martin had found his role in the team. “He’s also seen now as a leader of Carlton, he always had that leadership capability as well, and I think they’d be very happy with the player that he has turned into,” he said. “He loves running, hitting people, if his team doesn’t have the ball he wants it back more than anybody.” Martin helped Towns reach a grand final in his senior debut season when he was only 15, lining up on future Gold Coast Suns teammate Jaeger O’Meara on the wing. In 2012, at the age of 17, Martin starred in the Bulldogs’ premiership win, kicking six goals and awarded the Guardian Medal for best on ground. Only months later, the teen sensation was drafted by Gold Coast. Carlton will take on Brisbane at the Gabba in the second preliminary final on Saturday, September 23, with bouncedown at 3.15pm.