The Legacy Series | Episode 2 | Hassa Mann

[bush demon 2,093]

15 minutes ago, Demonstone said:

Many moons ago, I was in the Yarra Glen area, trying unsuccessfully to find my way to Dixons Creek.

I stopped at a general store for directions and who should I see lining up to buy his lunch but Brian Dixon.

Surely he'd know where Dixons Creek was!

Naturally enough, I asked him for a little help.  He seemed most annoyed at my intrusion and begrudgingly pointed me in the right direction.  

Just for the record, his lunch order was two pasties and a vanilla milkshake.

I once saw Tim Watson ordering a pie from Longwarry service station.

[Timothy Reddan-A'Blew 5,393]

15 minutes ago, bush demon said:

I once saw Tim Watson ordering a pie from Longwarry service station.

Alert, @Ghostwriter: thread trending dangerously...

[daisycutter 29,760]

3 hours ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Alert, @Ghostwriter: thread trending dangerously...

[hardtack 10,662]

3 hours ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

Alert, @Ghostwriter: thread trending dangerously...

I once had an ale with the whale.

[Deeoldfart 8,077]

I had the great privilege and pleasure of working with Hassa for about 6 months while he was working for the ‘Advance Australia Campaign’ in the 1970’s.  As others have mentioned, he is an absolute champion bloke, but the thing I remember most about him (outside his feats on the footy field) was his ‘crushing’ handshake when we were first introduced.  Vice-like would be a gross understatement!

Edited 12 hours ago by Deeoldfart
Typo

[Demonstone 23,003]

2 hours ago, hardtack said:

I once had an ale with the whale.

Other footballers who had pubs with a gimmicky advertising slogan included:

Ricky Quade - "Have a quicky with Ricky"

Larry Donohue - "Have one with he who kicked the ton"

[Whispering_Jack 30,756]

On cue - the second in the series 

The Legacy Series | Episode 2 | Hassa Mann

[bush demon 2,093]

9 hours ago, Tim said:

One of our greats. The North footage would seem to be from 1967 where we won by 3 points at the ‘G, with Peter Smth running around in the #4 jumper previously made famous by his father - the coach that day.

The Collingwood one would be from 1968 at Victoria Park, again where we won. Greg Parke visible in the footage in his first season - kicked 4 straight.

At 1.27 the Geelong player who attempts to kill him with a head high is good old Sam Newman.

I'm pretty sure in that North game that Mann swooped in out of nowhere and kicked the winning goal... 

[chook fowler 19,600]

After Hassa my heroes were Tassie Johnston, Donny Williams, Barry Bourke and then Ross Dillon. Later came the one and only Tulip.

[Demonstone 23,003]

4 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

After Hassa my heroes were Tassie Johnston

I had a pair of giant posters on my bedroom wall, possibly released in association with Mobil.

One was of Hassa and the other Tassie.

I can also recall saving up my pocket money to buy a 7" single record from the local Mobil servo that featured the Melbourne theme song on one side and an interview with Hassa on the other.  Wish I still had it!

[bush demon 2,093]

28 minutes ago, bush demon said:

I'm pretty sure in that North game that Mann swooped in out of nowhere and kicked the winning goal... 

 

[tilly18 296]

25 minutes ago, Demonstone said:

I had a pair of giant posters on my bedroom wall, possibly released in association with Mobil.

One was of Hassa and the other Tassie.

I can also recall saving up my pocket money to buy a 7" single record from the local Mobil servo that featured the Melbourne theme song on one side and an interview with Hassa on the other.  Wish I still had it!

I had that as well. I'm pretty sure Tony Charlton was the interviewer.

[chook fowler 19,600]

1 hour ago, Demonstone said:

I had a pair of giant posters on my bedroom wall, possibly released in association with Mobil.

One was of Hassa and the other Tassie.

I can also recall saving up my pocket money to buy a 7" single record from the local Mobil servo that featured the Melbourne theme song on one side and an interview with Hassa on the other.  Wish I still had it!

I remember seeing an interview with Peter Hudson where he named Tassie as the best full back he had played against. High praise indeed.

[Adam The God 30,485]

Great interview. I find it pretty difficult to reconcile his (and Ridley's) views on the merger. Instead of building our own team better, the thinking was let's just take over Hawthorn. Lazy and extremely misguided IMV, but appreciate his great contribution to the club over many years.

I remember vividly the NO MERGER signs in the MCC growing up.

Edited 10 hours ago by Adam The God

[BAMF 4,395]

The only person I've ever heard of having the name Hassa. I'm assuming its similar to Hassan and arabic in origin?

Edited 9 hours ago by BAMF

[Demonstone 23,003]

His real name is Harold and he had a cousin called Len, who played 46 games for Melbourne. 

From Demonwiki:

Mann was universally known as "Hassa", a nickname bestowed on him by Len as a child because he couldn't pronounce Harold.

 

[Tim 3,502]

1 hour ago, Demonstone said:

His real name is Harold and he had a cousin called Len, who played 46 games for Melbourne. 

From Demonwiki:

Mann was universally known as "Hassa", a nickname bestowed on him by Len as a child because he couldn't pronounce Harold.

 

At the Boxing Day Test I was sitting near Hassa’s cousin and premiership teammate Len, who was sitting next to multiple premiership teammate Bryan Kenneally. Father and son premiership player Kenny Emselle thereabouts also. All looking in good nick.