Recruited locally, Thaw was a back pocket in Essendon's 1949 premiership side.
He retired in 1954 and the following season was put in charge of the Reserves team, coaching them until 1959.
In the 1959 VFL season he coached Essendon to a win over Fitzroy when Dick Reynolds was unavailable.
Prior to his football career, Thaw served in the Australian Army during the latter part of World War II.
This Australian rules football biography of a person born in the 1920s is a stub.