Quirk, who also turned out for game No.50 against the Saints, was 20 years 229 days when he got there in what was the 16th round of 1967 at Princes Park. Kreuzer will be 20 years 362 days when he breaks the banner at Etihad Stadium.
Quirk, the 167-game Carlton wingman and Hall of Fame member, said he had followed Kreuzer’s career with great interest, and had the utmost respect for the aspiring ruckman.
"I admire how versatile Matthew Kreuzer is. He works hard at ground level, he’s fast and he has a good head on his shoulders. He’s had a lot of publicity, but he’s very modest and really, he’s done it well."
A member of the Blues’ breakthrough premiership team of 1968, Quirk wasn't aware of his place at the forefront of the elite club of first-up 50-gamers, which also includes the likes of Ron "Socks" Cooper, "Turkey" Tom Carroll and the current President Stephen Kernahan.
"I know that I played my first game at 18 and might have played another 60 more in succession before I got an injury," Quirk said. "For memory I played my first game in 1965, had my jaw broken in '68 and that was the first game I missed. It was controversial too. South’s Eric Sarich went to kick the ball, I bent down to grab it and he kicked me. It was accidental, but [coach] Ron Barassi went berserk. He came out hard and gave it to Sarich, it blew up in the papers and 'Barass' had to apologise to stop it from going to court."
Kreuzer will become the 297th Carlton footballer to play 50 games. Of those 297 players, 45 turned out at senior level with other League clubs before Carlton, including the Blues’ 1994 Brownlow Medallist Greg Williams at Geelong and Sydney.
Carlton Players who played their first 50 games without missing a match | ||||||
| Player | Yrs - days | Year | Rd | Against | Venue | +/- |
| Archie Snell | 27 - 28 | 1904 | 16 | Melbourne | Princes Park | -29 |
| Frank Caine | 26 - 47 | 1907 | 2SF | St. Kilda | MCG | 56 |
| Ron Cooper | 23 - 71 | 1934 | 14 | Richmond | Princes Park | -13 |
| Vin English | 23 - 114 | 1952 | 14 | Sth. Melb. | Albert Park | 0 |
| Tom Carroll | 23 - 258 | 1963 | 10 | Melbourne | Princes Park | -28 |
| Bryan Quirk | 20 - 229 | 1967 | 16 | St. Kilda | Princes Park | 11 |
| Stephen Kernahan | 24 - 214 | 1988 | 1 | Hawthorn | Princes Park | 15 |
| Matthew Kreuzer | 20 - 362 | 2010 | 7 | St. Kilda | Dome (MN) | |
From Other League Clubs who played their first 50 Carlton games without missing a match from their Carlton debut | ||||||
| Bill Milroy* | 24 - 233 | 1954 | 9 | Hawthorn | Princes Park (M) | 5 |
| Nick Stevens* | 26 - 138 | 2006 | 8 | St. Kilda | MCG (HS) | -92 |
*Bill had played 7 games at Nth Melb. while *Nick had played 127 games at Port Adelaide | ||||||
