| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth | 12 July 1930 |
| Recruited from | Albury |
| Height and weight | 175 cm, 73 kg |
| Playing career¹ | |
| Debut | 2 June 1951, Essendon v. Fitzroy, at Brunswick Street Oval |
| Team(s) |
Essendon (1951–1954, 1958–59) 80 games, 22 goals |
| ¹ Statistics to end of 1959 season | |
Lance Mann (born 12 July 1930) is a professional footrunner and a former Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
Contents |
A talented wingman, Mann was recruited from the Albury Football Club.
He played his first senior match for the Essendon Football Club against Fitzroy at the Brunswick Street Oval on 2 June 1951 (round 6). He played in every match for the rest of the season. He played in Essendon's Grand Final 10.10 (70) loss to Geelong 11.15 (81), and was one of Essendon's best players.[1]
His trainer was Pat Kennedy.[2]
On Monday 28 January 1952, aged 21, he won the Wangaratta Gift, running off 8½ yards in 12.1 seconds. He started the final as 5-to-4-on favourite, having been a 20/1 outsider before the first heat.[3]
On Monday, 15 April 1952, he won the 1952, 130-yard (120 m) Stawell Gift in eleven and fourteen-sixteenths seconds, off a handicap of 7¼ yards (6.63 m).[4]
On Wednesday, 16 April 1952, he also won the Bendigo Gift, running off a handicap of 1 yard in 11.8 seconds.
Mann was the first athlete to win the Wangaratta Gift, the Stawell Gift, and the Bendigo Gift treble in the same year.[5]
On Monday, 10 March 1958, and running off 4½ yards, he ran second in the Bendigo Thousand (130 yds);[6] the feat was all the more remarkable as Mann had broken down during his heat the year before (1957) with a thigh injury so severe that he had to be stretchered from the ground.[7]