He was recruited from the Howlong Football Club in 1911; and, when he first came to Collingwood he was known as "Snowy Martin", due to his similarity to an Essendon player of the same name.

[5] He played his first senior game for Collingwood on his 26th birthday (Saturday, 3 June 1911), against Melbourne in round 6 of the 1911 VFL season on the forward line; he kicked one goal.

Noting that he was "a player from a rural association", the football correspondent of The Age — who thought that Collingwood full-forward Dick Lee was quite out of form during the match — remarked that "in the want of lofty markers in the forward division [for Collingwood]… Anderson was the most proficient in this department" and, further, asserting that "[Anderson will undoubtedly prove to be a valuable acquisition to his team".

[7] The Collingwood team, carrying two of its champion players — its full-forward and captain, Dick Lee, and its centre half-forward, Dan Minogue — who had both been badly injured during the match, lost to Essendon by 6 points.

[9] Playing on the half-back flank, he was one of the few consistently good players for the Collingwood team that was soundly beaten by Carlton 11.12 (78) to 6.9 (45) in the 1915 VFL Grand Final, on 18 September 1915, in what was considered to be a "fast and furious game".

[12][13] In 1914, former St Kilda player, captain, and coach, James Smith, encouraged by the American boxing referee and manager of the major Melbourne boxing venue, Mr Angelo Marre, came up with the notion of taking two teams of Australian rules footballers (all in all, 45 men) to the Panama–California Exposition (scheduled to begin in San Diego, California in March 1915) to demonstrate Australian rules football.