The AFL, in its wisdom, has officially declared its Team of the 20^th Century half-back Bruce Doull the keeper of Carlton’s consecutive games record of 162, despite the fact that two matches in that block were Victorian state games. 

A ruling was first sought from the League back in July when Kade Simpson’s run of 158 matches for the Blues was abruptly ended at the MCG by way of a vicious shirtfront which left him with concussion and a broken jaw.

At the time the Editor of the AFL Record Season Guide Michael Lovett was quoted as saying that with the planning for next season’s publication looming, “we’ll take it to football operations to get a determination”.

“There’s more than 20 players affected across the board in terms of state representation,” Lovett said at the time. “They include Footscray's John Schulz, who played more than 100 consecutive games, eight of which included Victorian games.”

Back then, Lovett did not want to pre-empt the ruling, but appreciated the argument “that if you were good enough to represent your state you obviously would have been good enough to represent your club”.

And so it has come to bear for Doull, the Blues’ four-time premiership player, four-time best and fairest and Norm Smith Medallist, who was unavailable for club games against Melbourne in Round 4, 1976 and Fitzroy in the 13^th Round of 1977.

Lovett said that in consultation with League operations, Doull’s consecutive club games record would stand because the aforementioned matches were staged on the same weekend as the respective state fixtures, both involving the Big V and WA at Subiaco Oval.

John Nicholls, Victoria’s most capped footballer, completed his senior tenure for Carlton on game No. 328, although three of his state appearances fell on the same day as his club games, while Geoff Southby, who was also unavailable for three Carlton matches due to his state commitments, is listed as having played 268 club games rather than 271.

But Lovett said that the “Doull Rule” would not apply to either of Bruce’s former teammates because their state appearances didn’t fall within any consecutive games blocks “and you can't ADD games when they haven’t played”.a

Most consecutive Carlton club games, 1897 –

162 - Bruce Doull (Round 16, 1971 - Round 12, 1978)

158 - Kade Simpson (Round 15, 2005 - Round 15, 2012)

142 - Jim Francis (Round 6, 1935 - Round 16, 1942)

133 - Simon Beaumont (Round 8, 1998 - Round 22, 2003)

105 - David McKay (Round 1, 1970 - Round 7, 1974)

104 - Andrew McKay (Round 13, 1998 - Round 19, 2002)

103 - Anthony Koutoufides (Round 12, 1994 - Round 18, 1998)