Kane Cornes believes Carlton co-captain Patrick Cripps is well within his rights to look elsewhere if the Blues fail to improve in 2020.
Carlton suffered a one-point loss to Melbourne on Sunday, trailing by as much as 42 points during the contest.
Cornes believes the weight of carrying his teammates over the past few years will have taken its toll on the Western Australian, and that toll could see him go elsewhere in search for further success.
“The holistic approach for Carlton now, and I in particular want to focus on the captain Patrick Cripps, who is one of the most admired players in the game and you can see why,” Cornes said on SEN’s Whateley.
“For the way that he’s carried that side for the last three or four years must be starting to weigh on him.
“They take on Geelong this weekend so they probably go zero and three which in a shortened 17-round season means finals are probably out. It would be really tough to play finals on the back of that.
“It means at the end of this season, Cripps will have 120 games to his name and zero finals.”
Cornes cited the likes of Richmond's Tom Lynch and Dion Prestia as examples of players that left a struggling club in search for success.
“Does he start looking at what Tom Lynch has done, moving from Gold Coast to Richmond, or Dion Prestia and think, 'Well, by round one next year I’m going to be 26 years of age, a what point do I have to worry about my legacy and actually playing some big finals footy', which is what he should expect as a player of his calibre.
“He must look around to teammates like Kade Simpson. 326 games, two winning finals and hasn’t progressed past a semi-final. Marc Murphy has played two winning finals, six in total.
“Does Cripps want to finish his career at Carlton, who appear to be another disappointment again this year? On the back of what has happened over the last 20 years at that football club, would you begrudge Patrick Cripps for looking around?
“His contract expires at the end of next year. He’ll be a restricted free agent and does he look to go to a big club that are going to feature in finals because losing wears you down.
“His 24 percent win-loss ratio isn’t fitting for a player of his character.
“I wouldn’t blame him if at the end of next year and if things are going the same way at Carlton that he just has a peak around of what his options look like for the rest of his career.”
Cripps is contracted until the end of 2021.
