TERANG Mortlake defender Chris Baxter faces a tough initiation to his VFL career against a talent-laden Footscray outfit tomorrow.
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Baxter will make his debut for North Ballarat Roosters on a day where Hampden league export Gerard FitzGerald equals the VFA/VFL coaching record.
The three-time Roosters premiership coach’s 313th game equals Bill Faul’s record, which has stood since 1959.
FitzGerald said Baxter deserved his debut, having shown his commitment and hunger to improve in his first pre-season at the club.
Baxter, who will play alongside Bloods teammate Nick Couch in his first game, will play a role at half-back.
FitzGerald said the withdrawal of the Roosters’ development side this year meant players were not lost to their local clubs.
Baxter has trained on Wednesday nights with North Ballarat and played the first three Hampden league rounds for the Bloods.
“Chris has the chance on debut to play alongside North Melbourne’s captain (Andrew Swallow) and play against a great Western Bulldogs person in (Daniel) Giansiracusa,” FitzGerald said.
“That is the level they can be involved in now and they can do it from their own home.”
FitzGerald said Baxter had shown enough promise at Roosters’ training to earn a call-up.
“When we train Wednesday nights we do a lot of game- sense training and teach the boys to play our way and he’s adapted well,” he said.
“He played half a game against Geelong in a practice match and showed he has the capacity to play at this level.
“He replaces a boy who is a similar height, Ollie Tate, who has been a very good player here for three or four years.
“We expect Chris to do well on an opponent but also run off him.”
FitzGerald said his coaching desire was still strong after leading three VFL clubs.
The former Camperdown mentor has coached North Ballarat, Springvale and Port Melbourne.
He has spent the bulk of his VFL coaching tenure at the Roosters, starting a five-year stint there in 1997 before returning in 2007 and leading them to flags in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
“I want to use the experience I have had from the past from two exciting eras at North Ballarat to assist a new group and to experience the highs the others had, to help them consolidate and establish,” FitzGerald said.