For “Big Nick” that happened 48 years ago this month, when the then Carlton captain led his players onto the MCG and into football immortality. It was Grand Final day 1968 - the drought-breaking Grand Final in which the team landed the club its first Premiership in 21 years 7.14 (56) to Essendon’s 8.5 (53) (and who said bad kicking is bad football?).
“‘Simmo’s’ in pretty good company isn’t he?,” said Carlton’s Football Administration Manager Shane O’Sullivan with justifiable pride. It was ‘Shaneo’, in his capacity as the club’s Recruiting Manager, who called Simpson’s name in that calamitous draft of 2002 when Carlton’s salary cap transgressions robbed it of its priority and first round national draft selections set aside for Brendon Goddard and Daniel Wells.
“We had committed to Goddard and Wells, but we had Simmo in the top 20 because we really rated him,” O’Sullivan recalled.
“I’ll never forget that when we lost our picks we all met down at the Paragon Café in Rathdowne Street. ‘Swan’ (David) McKay and Kenny (Hunter) were amongst those there and they asked ‘Who are you going to pick?’ with our first pick, which was 45*, and I told them Simmo.
“When it came to our pick on the day, Simmo was there and we had no hesitation picking him, because he was one we rated highly.”
O’Sullivan remembered Simpson and Brad Fisher as the standouts for Eastern Ranges at Under 18 level.
“Even though Simmo was skinny, his skill level was there, he was always courageous and he could mark overhead well for a little fella,” O’Sullivan said.
“To see him get to 200 is just fantastic when you consider how tough it was when the poor bloke first started. Denis Pagan, the then Carlton Senior Coach, certainly put a lot of pressure on him to stand up and he got through it all pretty well because of his character.”
Simpson preferred not to avail himself for this interview and it’s fair to say he has more on his mind.
So let the stats, in part, tell the whole.
The club’s resident statistician Stephen Williamson advises that of Simpson’s 200-game predecessors at Carlton (there are 32 in total) none have got there in the No.6 guernsey – and that includes men of stature like Bob Chitty, Ern Henfry and Garry Crane.
Accordingly, Simpson will be the first of 29 wearers of the No.6 guernsey since Ern Jamieson in 1911 to achieve the 200-game feat.
Williamson also reminds that Simpson represented Carlton in 158 consecutive matches between Round 15, 2005 and the 15th Round of 2012 (when he regrettably sustained a broken jaw) and his durability is such that he’s finished in the top 10 placegetters in the past seven countings of the John Nicholls Medal for club champion.
It’s little wonder then that O’Sullivan speaks so glowingly.
“Simmo’s played through the worst of it and now he’s playing finals,” O’Sullivan said.
“He has the respect not only of the group but of the club. He’s not captain, but he’s a great support for ‘Murph’(Marc Murphy) and at half-time he’s the voice you always hear. He’s a quiet person away from it, but when he’s with the boys they hear him because he only speaks when he has to.”
* selection 45 was Carlton’s fourth round selection in the 2002 National AFL draft. The club would have forfeited its second round selection (16) for salary cap breaches also, but had already traded it to Port Adelaide for Barnaby French.
