vWhen a helmeted Rowley Daw ran onto Lathlain Park in round one of 1970  he became the first WANFL player to wear head protection gear.It was controversial at the time, and opinion was divided, with the apparatus needing to be checked by umpires before each game, but it was eventually universally accepted, and enabled some fine exponents of the game to continue their careers.“After my second bout of concussion, in 1969, the club wouldn’t play me for the rest of the season,” he said. “It was the people at Princess Margaret Hospital who custom made and fitted a new protection helmet for me. The bloke who made it initially refused, but I managed to talk him into it.”“Although refusing to give a reason for his reluctance, I ran into him many years later and he admitted he was an East Perth supporter.”It was perhaps ironic that a member of the Daw family, who pioneered the Norseman, Esperance, and Ravensthorpe areas,  should be responsible for a new innovation in sport.  Daw fought his way back into the league side the following season, going from almost forced retirement to a premiership in 1970 and an AW Walker Medal as fairest and best in 1971. South Fremantle’s Joe Maffina recruited the midfielder following his performances with the strong Northam High School side. “I grew up following South, and my brother Haydn was playing reserves with them at the time, so I didn’t need much persuading,” Rowley recalled. Spending most of the 1966 season in reserves and colts, the eighteen year old debuted off the bench against Perth at Lathlain, playing the last ten minutes of the game. A competitive athlete, Daw was quick off the mark with tenacity and determination features of his game. A good pre season in 1967 saw him in the league squad, and he played every game on a wing, finishing second to another debutant, Norm Cox, in fairest and best voting. After disposing of West Perth in a semi final, South lost the preliminary final to East Perth after being twenty three points up at half time, with Daw one of his side’s best. Given the honour of vice captain at the age of nineteen in his second full season, Rowley continued to sparkle in 1968, with the side sliding out of the four, but the following season was even darker for himself and the club, which finished last under new coach Hassa Mann. Sitting out for most of the year because of concussion worries, Daw was determined to fight his way back, and enlisted the aid of Princess Margaret Hospital.The now helmeted Daw was in the reserves side in 1970, as the league side began to climb back into prominence, and spots in the first eighteen became harder to find. With Frank Legena and Tony Morley in great touch on the wings, Rowley was forced to bide his time. An injury to rover Cox provided an opening, and Daw was the ideal replacement. With Mann and Brian Ciccotosto, Cox had been part of a three way roving switch, and Rowley fitted into the breech nicely. “I would start in the centre, with Hassa at half forward and Cicco in the pocket, and we would alternate, with Mann eventually staying forward,” he explained.One of his side’s best in the second semi final win over Perth, Daw regards the premiership victory over the same side a fortnight later as a “life experience.”  “It was in front of 43,000 people, which is more than you get at most AFL games at Suby today,” he recalled.Walker Medalist in 1971, Daw stunned the club and supporters by taking a break from football after just two games the following season to concentrate on a degree in science and mathematics at Curtin University, and lined up on Sundays with Cockburn-East Fremantle.Signed by South Australian club, Sturt, in 1973, his season was derailed when South Fremantle refused to clear him until the June 30 deadline. Subsequently playing in twelve reserves games before being promoted to the league side for the final three matches, he won the fairest and best for the reserves competition.Ready to return home, Daw applied for the reserves coach’s job at Sturt. “I decided if I was successful I would stay, otherwise it was back to WA,” he said. He missed out, so went back to Curtin and Cockburn-East Fremantle. It was also to begin a ten year association with the media.  “I was on the plane back from Adelaide,” he recalled. “Flying over the Nullarbor I noticed an advert in the paper for around the grounds people on 6KY. I got the gig, and it also led to TV work at Channel Nine.”In 1986 Daw made a comeback to the game in the Super Rules format, and was part of a successful WA side at an Australian Carnival in Darwin. These days Rowley is teaching at Mandurah, and is a keen golfer, but still enjoys his football, getting to watch South whenever possible, is a regular at Fremantle games, and  an avid spectator at his grandsons matches.Daw roved against two of the best of the trade to ever set foot on a football oval, and rates them highly. “Billy Walker and Barry Cable were just overpowering players.” He also gave credit to some of his old team mates in Mann, Fred Seinor, and Gary Scott. Rowley Daw played the last of his seventy six league games for South Fremantle at the age of just twenty three. A favourite with supporters, he enjoyed a relatively short career, with his dash and determination a feature. A Walker Medal and a premiership are testament to his ability.