Dale Thomas is no stranger to playing alongside greats in the midfield. Two brownlow medalists in Nathan Buckley and Dane Swan, as well as Steele Sidebottom and Scott Pendlebury, to name a few.
However, Thomas ranks 23-year-old Patrick Cripps as ''one of the best I've seen'', and due to Cripps' play on the field as of late, not too many are surprised with Thomas' statement.
Daisy explained to SEN how the clearance machine is poised to become one of the league's superstars.
“He is as good as I’ve seen to be completely honest,” he told SEN Breakfast on Friday.
“Every time I get asked a question about him, you feel bad for pumping him up because you don’t want to feel like you’re putting extra pressure on him but he sort of brings it upon himself in the way that he goes about his footy.
“He is a leader on the field, the way he prepares off the field and the lessons he is teaching the younger guys coming through is first class.
“He has that presence, you play with blokes where you can see the drive and it’s almost like, jump on my back here fellas, I’ll carry you around for a few minutes just to get the job done. He is one of those blokes.
“There was a stat the other day, he is the quickest player to get to 1,000 contested possessions ever in the game. He prides himself on that part of his game and he is unstoppable and it’s a pleasure to watch.”
Cripps is averaging 28.2 disposals, 8.2 clearances, 6.6 tackles and 4.0 inside 50s per game this season.
