Meeting – 26 April 2022 @ 7.30 pm
Hassa Mann, three-time premiership player with Melbourne Football Club (MFC) will be the guest speaker at our April meeting. Hassa, pictured taking a mark at the MCG during his playing days in the Victorian Football League (VFL), will speak on the topic of “Field of Dreams: A sporting odyssey”.
The April meeting was held in-person at Port Melbourne Town Hall on Tuesday 26 April 2022, commencing at 7.30 pm.
A recording of Hassa’s talk can be viewed at https://youtu.be/QD-dZnnYLR4.
Hassa Mann was recruited to Melbourne from Merbein, in the Sunraysia region, debuting in 1959 wearing No 29 which he kept for the duration of his career in the VFL. Over the following decade he played 178 games, kicked 193 goals and played in the premiership teams of 1959, 1960 and 1964.
Hassa was MFC leading goalkicker in 1966, 1967 and 1968 and was the club Best & Fairest player in 1962, 1963 and 1967. He was selected in the All-Australian team in 1966 and represented Victoria in 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1968.
He became captain of MFC in 1965 after Ron Barassi left the club, holding that position until 1968.
Hassa was a member of the touring party for the first Australian Football World Tour in 1967. Organised by former VFL umpire, Harry Beitzel, ‘The Galahs‘, as the team were known, played Australian Rules exhibition matches in Darwin and London, and Gaelic football matches, under slightly modified rules, in Dublin and New York.
After the 1968 season, Hassa moved to Western Australia where he was captain/coach of South Fremantle from 1969 to 1971 playing 65 games and kicking 132 goals winning the club Best & Fairest in 1969. He led the club to the premiership in 1970 and was selected to represent WA in 1969 and 1970.
In 2000, Hassa was selected on the Half Forward Flank in the MFC Team of the Century and became an inaugural member of the MFC Hall of Fame the following year. He was inducted into the Australian Football League Hall of Fame in 2013.
From 1992 to 1997, Hassa was Chief Executive of MFC.
