From a “skinny kid” to veteran Tassie football cult figure, Craig Carter defied the natural progression to tread his own footy journey with a career path unlike most others.

The typical journey begins with the climb through junior ranks, with the destination being senior football some years later.  Some may eventually taste State League premiership glory. Then eventually after putting in so much, if retirement is not an option the road generally winds back to community club footy, where the competitive urge can be satisfied, but at a level where a tired body can still perform with the best in that competition.  It’s a natural progression, following in the footsteps of many Tasmanian footballers.

Craig Carter played a big part in the resurgence of the Glenorchy District Football Club, culminating in the 1999, 13 year drought breaking Premiership win.  He was looking forward to spending a bit less time in football and giving some time to the club with which he had shared his home town growing up.

After all, Carter had amassed 235 games for the Magpies, which included being awarded a Life Membership in 1996 and winning a Senior Premiership in 1999.  He won two club best and fairest awards including in 2000, his final year with the club. Carter had followed that typical journey right up until the moment he signed on with Claremont in the SFL for the 2001 season.

Few could have predicted how the next two years would play out and after some early self-doubt the then veteran went from spending less time in the game to the most time he had spent in it in his whole career.  In doing so he surprised only those who didn’t know him well enough.

But first the story begins on the cricket field.

From a sporting point of view, as a teenager Carter was a cricketer first and foremost.  He held no ambitions to play football at a high level when he was young and football was more of a social outlet rather than as a serious pursuit.

“I wasn’t a footballer, not as I was growing up.  I did play football at school because there were really only two sports you could play, football and cricket where I was.  So I played football to be around friends and I was a bit of a late bloomer. I was shortish and I didn’t really sprout up until after I left high school.  I just enjoyed cricket more and I preferred that.”

Carter did eventually make the decision to head to KGV to pursue football and began in the underage team.

On making that decision to have a go at playing football Carter said that underage coach and Glenorchy legend Gary Linton saw something in him, after which he credits former senior coach Robert Groenewegen as giving him the pathway to play senior football.

“While there might have been people there that thought, oh he’s not much good, Robert Groenewegen turned up and didn’t know anyone, so he sees me and I’m probably 6’4”.  I was skinny as a rake. There was nothing of me but he gave me a go. I should mention Kim Excell too. He was the reserves coach at the time. He went on to be senior coach and he gave me a go too.”

Once he knew coaches and other mentors at the club had confidence in him Carter made the decision to take football on as his number one sport, leaving cricket behind for good, or at least until much later in life.

“We lost the second grade (cricket) grand final at the TCA and I thought, I’m going to have a year off cricket and see how this football thing pans out.  I never played cricket again.”

“I was 17 or 18 when I played my first senior game, as full back.  It’s funny because I was a forward and as they say, if you struggle forward go back and so I went to the backline in the reserves and played some good games there as a backman and that’s how I got picked for my first senior game.”

That first game in the Glenorchy senior team was a baptism of fire for such a young man.   

“We played North Launceston at York Park and for a while there I was playing on Tony Brand.  I was absolutely shitting myself, thinking he was going to kill me.”

But Carter was prepared to put in and learn while on the job, with insiders at the ‘Pies seeing the potential, giving him a licence to improve his game largely playing in the senior team.

“I think I spent my first 50 games learning how to play.  I was like a chicken with its head cut off there, but you pick it up as you go and get better.  Some people are superstars from the get-go but I certainly wasn’t one of those.”

As a raw rookie in 1988 Carter managed to play a final (during the suspension of Groenewegen) but the coach took his place in the grand final, in which Devonport claimed the flag on a drizzly wet day at North Hobart.

1989 saw a change in coach but unfortunately a change in fortune for the young Craig Carter came with it, only managing a handful of games.  There were however some lighter moments that Carter recalled, including on Bellerive Beach.

“After Groenewegen left, in 1989 we got Billy Picken over from Clarence to coach.  I had a bad year, didn’t play many games, maybe three senior games the whole year. We were playing one game against Clarence.  They were always massive games between us and we had a team meeting on Bellerive Beach before the game. We all lobbed down there and he (Picken) was drawing the game plan on the beach.  All of a sudden a wave came in and washed it all away. I wouldn’t have said boo to a goose because I was only a kid. I probably wouldn’t have even laughed but there were people like ‘Super’ Linton and the driest bloke ever, Roland Curley, gave it to him flat out.”

Carter went on to play with and under other senior coaches and household names Danny Ling, Kim Excell, Paul Hamilton and in that final year at Glenorchy, Shayne Stevenson.  During that time Carter won two best and fairest awards, in 1994 and 2000. He was a part of that elusive premiership win under the outstanding player and leader in Hamilton and became a life member of the club.  

After he had given so much and tasting the ultimate state league success, few could forgive him for wanting to take the step back.

Come pre-season for 2001 and after Carter had signed on for Claremont, he sprang a major surprise.

Craig Carter walked in to the Tasmania (Pre the Devils nickname) Football Club’s first training session at the urging of former Glenorchy team mate Ben Careless, without an invitation from inaugural coach Mathew Armstrong.  While not a momentous occurrence in itself, it was a big step and Carter admitted to having some minor nerves prior to that first run.

Part of the lure to play was the opportunity to travel to Victoria and play at AFL venues in a high standard competition, even as an older player.  He also admitted that he didn’t want to finish up wondering if he would have been good enough.

“So there I was at 29-30 years of age and I thought to myself, well this is it.  If you ever thought you were good enough to play AFL, here’s your chance to play against blokes who are on lists.  I’ll never forget when the roster came out and one of the games was versus Carlton at Princes Park. I thought, it’s the closest you’re ever going to get, especially now at that age to go and play at that level of footy.”

He wasn’t even sure that he would remain in the squad, let alone play a game when he walked through the door on the first night.

“There were a few bumps along the way.  I remember a practice game against Essendon where I spent the first half not touching it and I thought, this is a nightmare, what have I done?  I’ve made a big mistake. Essendon had a pretty good side in because they had a few senior blokes in. I was always two to five metres off the play.  After half time I got a bit of the ball and got myself more to the level and felt comfortable and it wasn’t too bad. I managed to get picked in that first side”

From that first game, the next two seasons would culminate in Carter being the only player to play in all matches during that time, with some outstanding performances at arguably the second highest level of football in the country.

“For my brief career I had the games record,” Carter candidly recalled, whilst also acknowledging there were others who would probably have done the same were it not for injury or suspension.

“I think I got into the boys at training one night and said to the boys, I’ve got the games record and Budgie (Brett) Geappen said to me, ‘Yeah, but you’re 50 mate.’  He knew I was going and he was only 19 or 20 or something. He knew he was going to play on for as long as the Devils were going for, and he did.”

Despite the light hearted recollection, Carter does have some justifiable pride in the feat, however.

“For a bloke who was trying out to see how he would go at that age, to play every game, I thought was a pretty good effort.”

In that first season his team and the Tasmanian footballing community didn’t have to wait long for what became undoubtedly one of the highlights of the VFL campaign.

The first ever clash with Carlton at Princes Park to which Carter referred to in the roster, as a curtain raiser to the AFL match, had the build up of a big match in the air with the crowd also building for the AFL match as the day wore on.

The Tasmanian team had a mountain in front of it.

While far from conceding defeat before the ball had even been bounced, Carter admitted the confidence was not high before the game, not quite knowing what to expect.

“I don’t think anyone gave us a chance to be honest.  We were well behind and I don’t think even Dogga (Armstrong) thought we could win.  We put people behind the ball just to try to limit the damage and then all of a sudden we managed to sneak a couple of goals and got the win.”

Carter recalled the excitement of that first ever win and the feeling within the group, but how the players hadn’t anticipated the reaction from the local Tasmanian media.

“There was a real buzz and although I didn’t think it at the time, we realised how big that it was later.  I remember the next day, you know how they have pictures of the grand final sides with the whole team there, there were pictures like that.  It was like a grand final win, but it was the third round of the VFL season. It was a massive buzz.”

Carter was instrumental in that win, kicking four goals and was named in the best players, admitting that he was under some pressure leading into the match after a slow start to the season.

Some weeks after that stirring first ever win, the home match in Launceston against Geelong provided Carter with another of his highlights.

“We had our first ever home win against Geelong and they had a good side in.  Cameron Mooney played in that one.”

Carter again starred in the victory over the Cats.

For those who remember the first season in the VFL competition, the boys from the island state were always going to be tested against some former, and at the time current AFL players, who had access to training facilities and resources the Tasmanian players could only dream of.

Ironically, these very match ups against the AFL players became one of the immediate highlights for Carter.

“Cameron Mooney for Geelong, Adrian Fletcher when he was playing for Williamstown after he had finished his AFL career.  I had actually played alongside Adrian with Glenorchy in the 1980’s in a thirds grand final.”

Carter was actually a year younger than most of the players in that under 19’s team and after labelling himself as “a skinny, raw kid” back in that team he received some high praise from the former teammate in a big win over Fletcher’s Williamstown side.

“In that game against Williamstown I played really well, it was one of my best games, playing in the ruck.  After the game he (Fletcher) came up to me and said, ‘Gee you’ve come a long way.’ I think he was genuinely serious about it”

Fletcher assessed Carter’s game well on that day, with Carter being awarded three votes in the Liston Medal for a best on ground performance.

There were also some near misses with potential match ups against stars of the game.  One aspect that Carter admits he would like to have been a part of if they came to fruition.

“There was one game against Geelong where Gary Ablett Junior was picked to play but he was taken up to the seniors and he didn’t play against us.  The same thing happened with Nick Riewoldt. It was good in one way, but bad in another because I might have had to play on him.”

As Carter seemed to improve during and then reach his peak at the tail end of his career, he garnered somewhat of a cult figure status among Tassie football fans.  Although Carter himself and the Glenorchy faithful didn’t see it that way, as they were already well aware of his capabilities.

“I think people at Glenorchy thought I was alright.  But I think outside of Glenorchy I wasn’t really rated as highly, perhaps.  People had me pigeon holed as a bit of a plodder, maybe a bit slow. But playing games with the spotlight on you, with everyone watching, not just Glenorchy people, they may have thought well he’s not too bad.”

“I remember one player from the VFL side, I think it was Craig Millar said, ‘I didn’t think you were up to it’, but he later added, ‘I was wrong’.  So I think people just had it in their minds that maybe I just wasn’t good enough.”

The scrutiny and media interest in the team and in particular on each player, after relative obscurity outside of supporters of their previous teams, led to fans across the state discovering talent in players that had otherwise been overlooked.

“The scrutiny was huge, because it was a massive thing.  I can’t describe how big it was. There were pages in the media of the build-up.  Every game was so scrutinised. It was the closest we have had to an AFL side, big crowds and a great following.”

Mathew Armstrong was a huge presence in those two years and Carter has no doubts as to the influence Armstrong had on his brief career there.

“I’ll put it on record now, he was fantastic to me.  I was an old bloke and at certain stages of my time playing at that level, when we couldn’t make finals he could have said, look he’s not going to be a part of the future and we need to get some young blokes in here.  He could have got rid of me easily, but I played every game.”

Armstrong did stick by Carter and given that he was the second oldest player in that first year, and the oldest in the second year, he felt that he did have slightly more lenience with regards to performance, without the pressure that may have been applied to the younger players.

“He wanted to mould his team.  He knew it was going to go on for years.  He’d get stuck into the young blokes, as he knew he would have them for a few more years down the track.  So I didn’t really cop much to be fair.”

“People like Brett Geappen and Thurls (Cameron Thurley) did though.  One of the worst sprays went to Simon Taylor, who went on to play with Hawthorn.  He copped an absolute spray in a practice match.”

The awkwardness of being in the room with a teammate under serious pressure from the coach was recalled by Carter.

“When it is happening to someone you kind of just look away.  It doesn’t happen that much anymore, times have changed. But I do think it builds resilience and character.  You should be able to cop criticism.”

It wasn’t all plain sailing for Carter however, as he recalled a couple of exchanges with Armstrong in his second, and final year in the state colours.  As others improved alongside him, Carter found himself spending more time on the interchange bench than he was used to and admitted to some frustration with the change.

“This is a funny story, although I didn’t think it was funny at the time but I think it’s hilarious now.  I started on the bench and spent a fair bit of time there. I was getting a bit frustrated and I finally got put on, I think on the backline somewhere.  The ball came down and I went to mark it. I thought, I’m going to mark this ball, but the bloke I was playing on was a lot stronger than I thought. He pushed back hard and I thought, shit and all I could do was just punch it away instead of marking it.  It wasn’t that drastic but then the runner came out and said, ‘You’re off again’. I remember saying, ‘What have I done, run over Dogga’s cat or something?’”

He did get the answer to his question.  During each week Armstrong would give regular feedback notes to the players.  Amongst his summation that week were the words, “And no, you didn’t run over my cat.”  Carter was reminded of the adage that when speaking with the runner, yes, you are speaking directly to the coach.

Then there was a possibility of an abrupt end after a poor first half.

“I remember once in a game, I think it was Sandringham at North Hobart, I wasn’t playing well to be fair.  At half time he went around a few people and he got to me and said, ‘You’ve got a half left of your career.’  I thought that was an absolute ripper of a call. I must have played a bit better in the second half, because I managed to get picked the next week.”

Craig Carter was indeed picked the next week and in fact every week in his time with the Tasmanian Devils.  

He played his last game of football at the end of the second year in 2002 and went out on his own terms.

He knew when it was time to wind up his career, with the timing of the Devils team giving him the opportunity to play at his highest level, right at the end of it all.

After making a name for himself at Glenorchy, the self-described “skinny kid” wasn’t about to leave before making sure all Tasmanian football followers knew who Craig Carter was as a footballer.

And didn’t we all enjoy it.

Statistics provided from Glenorchy District Football Club official website. https://glenorchymagpies.org.au.