Outside of individual accolades, Carlton captain Patrick Cripps hasn't had much to celebrate during his 13 years at Carlton.
After being drafted with selection 13 in the 2013 National Draft, Cripps has played 235 games and will run out for his 236th match on Thursday when his Blues tackle the Magpies to open Round 6.
The 31-year-old has been on the right end of the result on 86 occasions, a winning strike rate of just 37 per cent.
Cripps has only played in four finals, and the deepest he has gone was in 2023 when Carlton made a preliminary final.
When sitting down with Channel 7's Hamish McLachlan for a candid chat, Cripps - a dual Brownlow Medallist, Leigh Matthews Trophy winner, and four-time All-Australian - opened up about his toughest years as a Blue.
"(The years) 2020 and 2021 were the hardest years of my life, probably more performance, I look back on it and probably my biggest growth came from those years as well," Cripps said on Unfiltered.
"I found that really tough from a team, because we couldn't get the way we wanted them to go, that's when the review happened as well.
"My first six years went in a pretty upwards trend, individually, I was always levelling up and getting better, and then I probably had two sort of quieter years and that was probably the first time I reckon as a player I started losing a little bit of confidence."
Carlton just seven wins in each of 2020 and 2021, and in August of 2021, the Blues sacked David Teague, meaning they would be in search of a fifth head coach in nine years.
Cripss took over as sole captain in 2022, and has responded to his pair of struggling years with two Brownlow Medals, as well as leading his team to September once again.
