Lance Gibson Mann (12 July 1930 – 13 March 2015) was a professional footrunner and a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL).

Footballer

A talented wingman, Mann started his football career in Walwa, before playing with

Albury Football Club The Albury Football Club, nicknamed the ''Tigers'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based in Albury, a major regional city in New South Wales. Albury football and netball squads compete in the Ovens & Murray Football League. C ...

in the

Ovens & Murray Football League The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales and the Ovens and Murray are ...

. He played his first senior match for the

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

against

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

at the

Brunswick Street Oval The WT Peterson Community Oval, best known as the Brunswick Street Oval and also as the Fitzroy Cricket Ground, is a cricket and Australian rules football ground located in Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North, Victoria. History Australian Rule ...

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. Lance won the

Ovens and Murray Football League The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, Austral ...

Best and Fairest award, the Morris Medal in 1956 and was a member of Albury's 1956 premiership team. He was the coach of the Essendon Reserve Grade team in 1960 and 1961.

Sprinter

1952

Trained by Pat Kennedy, aged 21, Mann won the Wangaratta Gift on Monday 28 January 1952, 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. On Monday, 14 April 1952, he won the 75th [] Stawell Gift in 11 14/16 seconds, running off a handicap of . On Wednesday, 16 April 1952, he also won the Bendigo Easter Gift by in 11.8 seconds, running off a handicap of . Mann was the first athlete to win the Wangaratta Gift, the Stawell Gift, and the Bendigo Gift treble in the same year. It is also significant that his Essendon team-mate, Norm McDonald, running off , ran second to Mann in the finals of both the Stawell Gift and the Bendigo Gift.

1958

On Monday, 10 March 1958, and running off 4½ yards, he ran second in the Bendigo Thousand (130 yds); 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.Mann Injured at Bendigo, ''The Age'', (Monday, 11 March 1957), p.16.
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Footnotes

References

Evans, S., "Sport star survives bypass, heart attacks, transplant", ''The Border Mail'', Monday, 12 July 2010.

Riley, M., "Footballers and the Tradition of Professional Foot-Running", ''Boyles Football Photos'', 3 May 2013.
* Wells ( Samuel Garnet Wells (1885-1972))
"Stawell Stalwarts", ''The Age'', (Monday, 14 April 1952), p.12.

External links

* *
Lance Mann, at ''Boyles Football Photos''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Lance 1930 births 2015 deaths Australian rules footballers from Albury Albury Football Club players Essendon Football Club players Stawell Gift winners Australian male sprinters