IT’S 90 years since Creswell Crisp earned the inaugural Robert Reynolds Trophy (now the John Nicholls Medal) for Club Champion – and a further five since Horrie Clover took out Carlton’s first best and fairest award period.

And in the decades since, only two men have been so honoured five times – Nicholls himself and, now, Patrick Cripps.

Sadly, ill health prevented Nicholls – the Carlton and Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend – from placing the record-equalling bauble around Cripps’ neck.

But in the wake of the John Nicholls Medal count at the Crown Palladium, Cripps felt the poignancy of the moment.

“It’s pretty special, with ‘Big Nick’ an icon of the game and having the award named after him,” Cripps said.

“It’s not what you play for, but I have a great level of respect for the past greats who have come before us who are currently playing . . . and we stand on the shoulders of (them).”

Reflecting the respect he genuinely holds for Nicholls, Cripps talked of the advice the dual premiership captain and one-time premiership captain-coach had previously imparted upon him in respect of the captaincy specifically and of leadership generally.

Asked the secret to leadership, Cripps replied: “Any leader has to lead by example, number one . . . to be able to build confidence in others to be the best they can be”.

Cripps’ fifth John Nicholls Medal rounds out an incredible year’s showing from Northampton’s own, who earned his second Brownlow Medal victory with a record-breaking vote haul a fortnight ago – and as he readies for his 12th season and closes in on his 30th birthday, the 207-game midfielder is in no doubt the best is yet to come.

“I still feel I can get better,” Cripps said in championing the club’s time-honoured mantra Mens Sana in Corpore Sano. “There’s three areas of training – mind, body and craft – and the older you get the more wise you get and the more you understand the game . . .

“The mental side will never deteriorate. The only side that really deteriorates is your body and I feel that physically I’m in great shape.

“But my whole motivation is about team success.”