Carlton stars Patrick Cripps and Sam Docherty have been criticised after reportedly staying in a separate hotel to the rest of the team during last weekend’s trip to Sydney.
The Blues were in town to take on the Swans on Friday night, but lost a much-needed game to mount even more pressure on everyone at the club.
According to The Age’s Caroline Wilson, Cripps, the club captain, and Docherty both stayed at a separate hotel to the rest of the team, something which she said “seemed a bit odd to me”.
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Essendon great Matthew Lloyd was critical of the move, suggesting it could potentially cause division among Carlton’s playing group.
“I’d be surprised that you don’t stay in the same hotel as other players. That can cause an issue,” he told Nine’s Footy Classified.
“For example, if you fly to go and play a game (interstate) and two senior blokes go, ‘Oh we’re going off to a boutique hotel to stay’, that’s not what you do in my opinion.
“You stay together all in the same hotel, you build that connection.
“The last thing you want is (players) going, ‘Look at those two blokes, they’re in that hotel and we’re in this hotel’.”
Cripps flew back to Melbourne with his partner, separate to the rest of the team, something both Lloyd and Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes suggested was normal.
“I’ve got no issue at all (about Cripps leaving Sydney later), when you lose, things like that pop up,” he said.
“I was at the AFL this morning doing a show and (GWS Giants captain) Toby Greene was there, so he obviously hasn’t flown home to Sydney after they’ve beaten Geelong over the weekend.
“I think we look far more into things when teams are losing.”
“I don’t personally have an issue with that. I think footy clubs do this all the time,” Cornes added.
“If there’s a Friday night game and the players have the following day off, some players will choose to stay in that location and have a bit of a holiday.”
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While he defended Cripps’ flight back home, Cornes was critical of last year’s Brownlow Medal winner’s play so far this season.
“Clubs are coming after him and they’re coming after him hard, and he’s not having the impact he had last year,” he said.
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“You’ve just got to be on the move at stoppages. I think he stands stationary at stoppages too often which makes him easier to hug up.
“Last year we saw him move with power through the stoppage and bursting away and delivering inside 50, a lot of his possessions were in the forward half of the ground. Now they’re in tight and he’s clearly not having the same impact.”
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