For a town with less than 1000 people, Northampton knows how to produce an AFL star.
Almost 500km north of Perth, Northampton is Western Australia's most extraordinary football factory.
Carlton captain Patrick Cripps put the town of 830 people on the map yet again by claiming his first Brownlow Medal in a thrilling count on Sunday night.
Cripps is one of 10 AFL footballers to have grown up there, while Julia Teakle became Northampton's first elite women's player when she signed with Port Adelaide ahead of the Power's inaugural AFLW season.
Already boasting a combined tally of more than 1700 games, premiership winners and Coleman medallists, Northampton can say one of their own is the AFL's best-and-fairest.
Cripps took time to reflect on his home town less than 20 minutes after he became Carlton's first Brownlow winner since Chris Judd in 2010.
"(Dual Geelong premiership defender) Harry Taylor said there's lead in the water, I don't know how that works," Cripps said.
"One thing I will say is every single player that has come out of there is proud to be from there.
"We're a town of 800 people and to have 11 AFL players, if you talk to any single one of us we're proud to be from Northampton."
Northampton is so proud of its AFL royalty that metal figurines have been created of nine of their heroes outside one of the town's pubs.
Last November, eight of the nine returned home for the special unveiling.
Cripps was joined by recently-retired West Coast great Josh Kennedy, fellow Eagles premiership player Jamie Cripps, former ace Fremantle midfielder Paul Hasleby and Taylor.
Since the figurines were made, towering ruckman Brynn Teakle has debuted for Port Adelaide after being picked up in the 2022 mid-season draft, and cousin Julia also signed with the Power.
NORTHAMPTON'S AFL PLAYERS: Patrick Cripps, Josh Kennedy, Jamie Cripps, Harry Taylor, Daniel Chick, Paul Hasleby, Tarkyn Lockyer, Andrew Lockyer, Liam Anthony, Brynn Teakle, Julia Teakle.
