Sam Loxton - Style

Style

An aggressive right-handed all-rounder, Loxton tended to bat in the middle-order, and bowled after the new ball pacemen. As well as being a belligerent batsman, he was a right-arm fast-medium swing bowler known for his ability to move the ball, and a powerful outfielder. He had a strong arm and exploited his power frequently, to the extent that the Australian wicket-keeper Don Tallon complained about the jarring impact of his unnecessarily strong throws when the batsmen were already home and no run out was possible. Loxton was known for his energetic and aggressive approach to cricket, and liked to attack and intimidate opposition batsmen. In one match in the late-1950s, he bowled an eight-ball over at New South Welshman Norm O'Neill consisting entirely of bouncers aimed at the upper body. Loxton was not afraid of opposition bowlers doing the same to him; he had a penchant for trying to hook bouncers out of the ground. He was a predominantly back-foot player whose initial foot-movement tended to be back and towards and then across the stumps. When he committed to a back foot shot, Loxton often made such a decisive retreat that he almost stepped onto his stumps. One painter once captured the Victorian almost disturbing the woodwork with his right leg, leading Loxton to quip "That's what I call using the crease". Hassett said that his fellow Victorian "really used to give everything he had all the time... Put him on to bowl and he'd bowl his hardest, no matter how he felt." Bradman said that Loxton "never shirked the issue" and that "he’d throw himself into it with everything he had. This is one of the reasons he was a great team man. You could call on him at any stage and he’d give you his very best." Bradman said that the Victorian all-rounder "was never a great cricketer in the sense that some others were great, but he was a very good player and what he lacked in ability he made up for in effort". He further added that the Victorian was "the very essence of belligerence...His whole attitude suggests defiance and when he hits the ball it is the music of a sledgehammer." Former Test leg spinner Bill O'Reilly, while agreeing that Loxton was always energetic, regarded his bowling as being too dull and predictable to have any major impact at the highest level, and thought that the Victorian all-rounder’s career would have been best served by saving his energy purely for batting.

As a footballer, Loxton usually played as a forward, but was also used as a full-back and alternated between the two positions. He was known for his physical strength; another VFL player who had a reputation as an "enforcer" tried to bump him and later said that the collision made him feel as though he had run into a goalpost. According to Robert Coleman, Loxton was "competitive, pugnacious and outspoken, with a doglike loyalty to everyone and everything he served, whether it was his captain, his team, his party, his premier or his constituents."