Cripps verging on elusive feat with blistering 2022 start

Patrick Cripps is in white-hot form. There is no doubt.

The Blues midfielder had critics lining up around the block to question his goalkicking. They believed he didn't hit the scoreboard enough and didn't make his presence felt when the 195cm monster rested forward.

In 2020, Cripps was well underdone and struggled to get going from the first game. Bombers great Matthew Lloyd criticised his inaccuracy when nailing kicks in big moments (Cripps kicked seven goals, 11 behinds and averaged 19.65 disposals in 2020).

Yet, Kane Cornes suggested that maybe it was the management of the Carlton star that let him down. Cornes noted that most premium midfielders, such as Bontempelli, Petracca, Dangerfield and Fyfe, didn't spend more than 95% of their game time carrying their midfield.

Carlton, to their credit, went back to the drawing board and recruited hardened midfielders like Adam Cerra and George Hewett to share the load with Cripps, who, for the best part of seven years, was Carlton's very own atlas in the engine room.

Now we are witnessing the rebirth of Carlton's bull, who has not only straightened his goal-kicking, he's nailing long goals from 45m+.

The potential of Cripps using his size and strength up forward has seen him kicking ten goals in 17 quarters for 2022.

His ability to also find football has seen him on track for a remarkable record.

In the four full games of football Cripps has played in 2022, he has had 30 disposals and kicked three goals in three of them.

To put that into context, the record for a season is ten by Kevin Bartlett (1977) and Garry Wilson (1979), the most since 2000 is by Gary Ablett Jr, who achieved the feat nine times in 2010.

Overshadowed by Leigh Matthews's brilliant form in the same season, Bartlett's 1977 record is no shrinking violet.

At 30 years of age, Bartlett finished the year with 665 disposals at 28.91 and 56 goals at 2.39. He had 30 and two in a game ten times in 24 games and even kicked two bags of five.

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After winning every media award, Wilson was not named the 1979 Brownlow medallist, but he crafted together an almighty season for Fitzroy with 690 disposals, 46 goals and 50 behinds.

Between Round 6 to Round 17, Wilson achieved the 30 and two feats eight times.

The great Bob Skilton would have unquestionably joined Bartlett and Wilson in the double digits column as he did it seven times in only 17 games in 1968.

Skilton, who is the one and only footballer to average 30 disposals and two goals a game for a season, was on fire in 1968.

He started the year with 42 disposals and seven goals in Rund 1 against St Kilda and would've kicked a lot more if they played more than 18 home and away games a season.

As for the modern footballers, Ablett had achieved the feat more than seven times in four different seasons, including nine in 2010, when he averaged 31.50 disposals and 1.83 goals a game.

Dustin Martin and Patrick Dangerfield recorded the stat seven times in 2017. Akin to Cripps' blistering start, Ablett achieved the feat in five of his first six games in 2010.

After 32 disposals and 3.1 in a 35-point loss to Fremantle, Cripps will be licking his lips, hoping to add more goals to his growing tally against North Melbourne on Saturday night.

Here is a list of every player to achieve the 30 and two feat seven times or more in a season.