THAW, Alan

Alan "Basher" Thaw was a solid, hard-bumping back pocket. He came from the North Essendon Methodists and worked his way up from the Seconds where he won the Best and Fairest award in 1948. He was in the Seconds premiership team in both 1950 and 1952.

He was also in the back pocket in the Senior 1949 premiership team and won the Most Consistent Player award in 1953.

Thaw became captain-coach of the Second 18 between 1955 and 1958 and was non-playing coach in 1959. His 170 Seconds games is the most by any Essendon player and he played in 16 Seconds finals games.

He then went on to coach the Under 19s between 1960 and 1976. He was named as coach of the Under 19 State team in 1964 but turned the offer down.

Thaw retired from Telecom in 1986 after thirty nine years with the company.

He died on 22nd February, 2007.