Three-time league best-and-fairest winner Robert James (Bobby) Dawson passed away early last week at the grand old age of 102.
Dawson was also St Kilda Football Club’s oldest living player and the Goulburn Valley League’s oldest living Morrison Medallist.
St Kilda recruited Dawson as a 20-year-old from Elmore in 1941 and he spent one year with the Saints, playing four games.
When he made his debut against Melbourne in round four, he had never seen the famous MCG, or even a photo of it.
A superbly fit, skilful, quick rover-wingman standing 169cm (5ft 7in) and renowned for his blind turn, Dawson began playing senior football in the strong Bendigo league for his home town of Elmore at the age of 16.
The 1925 Brownlow Medallist and St Kilda Hall of Fame member Col Watson, who later farmed at Cooma near Kyabram and is buried in the Kyabram Cemetery, recommended Dawson to the Saints after watching him play.
After World War II, Dawson returned to country football where he proceeded to etch his name into country football folklore.
In 1946, back with Elmore, he won the Michelsen Medal for the league’s best-and-fairest.
Elmore switched to the Echuca District Football League in 1947 and he was runner-up for that league’s best-and-fairest honour, the Cook Medal.
He went one better in 1948, winning the medal.
Moving to coach Tongala in the Goulburn Valley League, he shared Tongala’s best-and-fairest award in its premiership year of 1949 with captain-coach and former Collingwood and Melbourne player Dave Newman, grandfather of Kyabram’s triple-premiership coach Paul Newman.
In 1950, Dawson again won Tongala’s best-and-fairest award and the Morrison Medal.
After his playing days, Dawson played a role in a push to establish the GVL thirds competition. He coached Tongala’s junior teams for almost two decades in the 1950s and 1960s.
He ran a successful family Friesian dairy farm on the outskirts of Tongala with his late wife Nance and they raised three children, Peter, Kaye and Robert.
Dawson was also very active in the local RSL sub-branch.
He lived out his final days at the Rocky McHale Hostel in Tongala and has left a lot of history and memorable moments with his passing.
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