Jim Wallis was part of a four player debut day which was probably St Kilda’s greatest ever influx of talent in one match.

Jim passed away on May 27 at the age of 80.

He began with the Saints in Round 1 1963 alongside Carl Ditterich, Bob Murray and Ian Stewart. Those three would each go on to win club best and fairests in glittering careers, with Stewart earning three Brownlow Medals.

Statistically Jim Wallis’s career would only amount to 39 games due to a knee injury which stopped him in his tracks early in his third season. He would undoubtedly have become a 10 year player, but sadly the treatment of knee injuries in those times was nowhere near advanced as what it is today. Around that time St Kilda had a particularly bad run with career ending knee injuries. Ross Oakley, Jim Guyatt, Bill Stephenson and Ray Cross were all denied long careers. A few years earlier, the 1957 Brownlow Medallist Brian Gleeson suffered a similar fate that forced him out at the age of just 22.

Jim Wallis was a 193 cm and 89 kg ruckman whose safe, one grab marking had parallels to that of Tim Membrey today.

Jim was described by one reporter as being an “accurate though wobbly left foot kick”.  Yet despite the awkward style he booted five goals in his third game and had another five goal haul later in the season.

In another parallel to Tim Membrey, Jim would often be stationed in defence in tight last quarters where his reading of the play and intercept marking would provide a steadying influence.

Jim had made his name in the small Mallee township of Quambatook, 300 kms northwest of Melbourne. He was the local primary school teacher for the 22 kids at the Normanville Primary School , but was a local hero to the population of 600 because of his footy exploits. At the age of 21 he was captain-coach of the local club, and in a magazine article of the time he admitted that the hardest part of his eventual move to the city was having to resign from the captain-coach role which paid him 12 pounds a week during the winter months.

As one magazine writer observed : “There isn’t a local (we couldn’t find one) who doesn’t know Jim personally. You can ask a farmer tending sheep, you can ask a  child, you can ask anybody, and they will give you enough evidence to  prove that Jim Wallis is the No.1 pin-up boy in that sun-bleached corner of Victoria, this side of the Murray”.   

He first attracted attention whilst training for a career at Bendigo Teachers’ College when he played two seasons for local powerhouse Sandhurst, winning a best and fairest. For several years he had been chased by League clubs Collingwood, Richmond,  North Melbourne, South Melbourne and Geelong, but he resisted all approaches to leave the country lifestyle of hunting and fishing which  he loved so much.

In the end St Kilda signed him on the basis that he could still live and work in Quambatook. He trained with the locals on the dusty Quambatook Oval during the week and on Friday would drive to Melbourne. St Kilda agreed to charter a plane if there was an emergency. Jim began taking flying lessons in a local grazier’s Tiger Moth with an eye to the future. Many years later he admitted that he “cooled off” the idea of flying after a mate was among three people killed in a Cessna crash at Trentham.

He played every game for the Saints in 1963 and 1964, then injured the knee in Round 2 of 1965. Teammates would be part of the 1965 and 1966 Grand Finals, but in a brief attempt to return he was injured in the one and only seconds game of his career.

Then in 1967 he injured his ”good” knee in a country week cricket match!

In his 30s he managed to come back and play in a couple of premierships for Quambatook. Little wonder that he was such an iconic figure in the town. Back in  1962 he played all season with a dislocated shoulder, but wouldn’t have it strapped because it hampered him. At the time the local publican recalled :”Jim was still carrying that injury in the Quambatook Grand Final. Opposing players hit him with everything. Jim was nearly dropping with fatigue, and he was covered with bruises.

“But he kept playing because he didn’t want to let the town down. That’s Jim Wallis.’’

Speaking in 2005 Jim was philosophical and certainly not bitter about the fact that he had missed out on being part of the ’66 flag side.

“I look upon my time as being fairly lucky to play with such good footballers at St Kilda”.