Carter's football journey began in Launceston in 1903 when he played for City before moving to local rivals North Launceston the following year as vice captain and coach. Straight away, he proved he was an excellent leader of men by steering his charges to 3 consecutive flags. In 1908 he joined Mersey on Tasmania's north west coast and, this time combining the off field function of coach with on field captaincy, was again successful in annexing the premiership. That same year also saw him represent Tasmania at the inaugural interstate carnival in Melbourne where the Apple Islanders finished top of B Division and Carter was awarded the Bibby Trophy as Tasmania's outstanding player.
Upon moving to Cananore in 1909 Carter was responsible for overseeing a quite unprecedented sequence of 3 successive TFL and state flags. The run was interrupted in 1912 when he resumed the coaching reins at North Launceston where, although successful at local level, he was unable to steer his charges past Lefroy in the state grand final.
Bruce Carter was back at Cananore the following year and once again he gave the club's supporters what they wanted at both TFL and state level.
It is worth pointing out that all of Carter's coaching achievements came about while he was a player, and that, to a very large extent, his input as a player contributed to those achievements. In 1914, for example - his final year as a playing coach - he was widely considered the best player afield in Cananore's losing grand final against North Hobart.
After a prolonged period in the 'outer' Carter returned to coaching with Cananore, this time in a non-playing capacity, for one season in 1937, but by this time the game had moved on considerably and he was only able to impel his charges to a single win all year. It was an unfortunate and depressing finale, but Bruce Carter deserves to be remembered not for this, but for his unparalleled achievements of a quarter of a century earlier.