Jim Baxter

Hailing from the gold mining town of Maldon, Jim Baxter was a plucky rover who followed his older brother Tom to Victoria Park. The siblings shared a bond forged in survival, having both escaped a mine shaft suffocation incident in 1905, but Jim’s time at Collingwood was defined by its irregularity. Acknowledged as a champion in the Castlemaine district, he treated the VFL as a secondary pursuit, managing just four senior games across three years while preferring to ply his trade in country football. On the field, he was a small, determined player with speed and skill, famously earning a recall for the 1909 semi-final despite his sporadic attendance. He eventually departed for the VFA, where he became a standout player for Footscray, establishing the consistency that eluded his brief stint with the Magpies before enlisting for World War I.