{"id":42172,"date":"2021-03-07T22:21:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T23:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=42172"},"modified":"2021-03-08T05:19:27","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T05:19:27","slug":"healthy-cripps-looks-a-new-player-after-injuries-lloyd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=42172","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Cripps 'looks a new player' after injuries: Lloyd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Essendon great Matthew Lloyd says Patrick Cripps<\/a> "looks a new player" after the Blues co-captain was hampered by injuries throughout the 2020 season. <\/p>\n

After two consecutive All-Australian years in 2018 and 2019, Cripps laboured through the most disappointing season of his career, finishing ninth in the club best and fairest.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>MORE: <\/strong>Cripps addresses contract speculation<\/a><\/p>\n

However, according to Lloyd, Cripps looks in career-best shape and is primed to lead Carlton back to the finals after an eight-year absence.<\/p>\n

"It's the best I've seen him move in about 12-18 months," Lloyd told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"He was ninth in Carlton's best and fairest last year, so it just shows how much he struggled with his body. <\/p>\n

\"Patrick<\/p>\n

"A lot of players want to lose weight, Patrick Cripps has set upon putting on a couple of kilos to go about not being beaten around like he has been by taggers and other midfielders. <\/p>\n

"Wait until Carlton fans see him moving in Round 1 because he looks a new player."<\/p>\n

Part of the optimism surrounding Carlton's prospects this season are centred around the acquisitions of Zac Williams<\/a> and Adam Saad, and Lloyd backed Williams to make Cripps' life easier.<\/p>\n

"He's a clearance machine, he's tough as nails and the perfect support act for Patrick Cripps," he said.<\/p>\n

"With Williams in the team, he's been going to full forward and been doing some good things, so that's what Williams does for Patrick Cripps this year." <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/em>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essendon great Matthew Lloyd says Patrick Cripps "looks a new player" after the Blues co-captain was hampered by injuries throughout the 2020 season. After two […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42174,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42172\/revisions\/42174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}