Carlton captain Patrick Cripps says Blues can turn it around despite 0-4 start to the season

Carlton’s captain, Patrick Cripps, has used his heart in the manga, expressing emotion and frustration for the beginning of the nightmare of his team, but still sure that things can change.

Cripps’s blues had the latest series of faded from the second half, since Collingwood came from behind on a wet night in the MCG to win by 17 points, 8.15 (63) to 6.10 (46), a marker that flattered men in navy blue.

An emotional Cripps told ABC Sport after the game that was still sure that the season had not ended despite the beginning without victories for 2025 that the team has in the 16th.

“I am very optimistic with what we can still do. Obviously [we] I don’t want to have a zipper and four, but fuck, that’s where we are right now, “Cripps said.

“We have to improve. The number one is never to lose hope … in 2023 we were playing much worse than that and we found a way to change it. We have been here before knowing what to expect, but we really will have to dig.”

In 2023, Carlton had only four victories in 14 rounds, lay 14 on the stairs, before returning home, winning eight of his last nine games to reach the finals before losing a preliminary final against Brisbane in the Gabba.

In the first four rounds of 2025, Carlton has been surpassed by opponents of 110 cumulative points in the second half of the matches. Cripps said he was frustrated and disappointed by emerging patterns.

“I feel it is quite clear, we have had a good soccer month now, in what we need to work. But I feel like tonight, they [Collingwood] He really got us in the contest, which is … I feel that the other games that we coincide or won that area of ​​the game, but tonight his pressure was really good.

When asked why the team was fighting in the last stages of the games, Cripps said:

“Friend if I had the answers, f *** I would like to know. I think it is just that fight and that thing of the contest, and [about] It is still brave at times. When the opposition comes to us at this time, you see it when you look at the return game, the boys get a little tight, so it is an obstacle that we have to face and I know that we will overcome it, it is frustrating at this time. “

Cripps said at least one element of Carlton’s game was still strong.

“I feel that the thing at the time that sustains it, the defense is solid: if we were sitting here and granting 120 points [a game] It would be a concern, but we are holding some good teams for low scores … we just have to wiggle some other things and get the trust of children. “

When asked how to keep the group together in challenging times, Cripps replied:

“You must be really honest with the place where you are, you also have to have those conversations that you cannot sweeten it, the facts are the facts. [We] Face reality, but you never lose hope and you never lose your identity or belief, that is so important right now. “

The patron hit questions about whether 2025 was already another lost year.

“You can’t look so far, to be honest. You do that, you can lose years and I have never been about that. As I said, [2023] It is a perfect example: there is a lot of belief in this group and I feel that I also have a lot of football in me. If you start thinking like this, it is a slippery slope. “

Cripps also set up an energetic defense of coach Michael Voss despite the difficult position of the team.

“I am so optimistic in [Michael Voss] – He is a great man, he is a men’s leader, he has done it as a player and has had a massive impact on this group when he entered, “Cripps said.

“We had never played finals before it took charge, many players that we have 1743781989 State in two final series, obviously I reached a preliminary and the nucleus [of the group] He has been together for a while.

“It is really honest, it is in advance and has great relationships with children and I have a lot of confidence in it, but also in us and the coaches to change this.”