Very few men can boast of beating Bobby Skilton, let alone completely outclassing the legendary Swans rover.

Harold Peter "Hassa" Mann might well be in an exclusive club of one.

In round nine, 1967, Melbourne coach Norm Smith assigned Mann the unenviable task of curbing Skilton.

Unbeknown to the Demons, Skilton had also been told to nullify Mann.

It was a mouth-watering prospect: an on-ball battle between opposing skippers, both champions in the primes of their respective careers.

The duel produced a surprisingly lopsided result.

Mann, a highly-skilled midfielder/half-forward, had the ball on a string, bagging a career-best seven goals to Skilton's two in a Melbourne win.

"Norm was happy and therefore I was too," Mann said.

It wasn't a one-off performance for Mann, particularly early in that 1967 season, when he believes he was in career-best form.

That seven-goal haul boosted his season tally to a personal-best 29 in nine rounds, and he was dominating the media awards.

In a state game a fortnight later, Mann, then 26, suffered a broken foot that limited his output for the rest of the season, but he still managed to finish equal-fifth in the Brownlow Medal with 12 votes, one more than Skilton.

He was also runner-up in two media awards, recalling: "I was beaten in one award by one vote, and lost another on a countback when first prize was a new car!"

As an untried teenager from Merbein in north-west Victoria, Mann rejected offers of new cars from Richmond and Geelong – two of nine clubs chasing him – to join Melbourne.

The Demons only gave him a pair of ill-fitting new boots, but Mann was attracted by the prospect of playing for the league heavyweight on the MCG every second week.

Now 72, Mann feels "incredibly fortunate" to have joined the Demons in the midst of their golden era, and to have been coached by Smith, the greatest influence on his football and business careers.

Mann modestly questions whether he would have been inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame had he gone to another club.

He became a dual premiership player while still 18. A third flag came in his sixth season, 1964.

"It's easier to play in a top side than in a struggling one," he said.

"I think my achievements exceeded my ability."

Mann still can’t believe he twice beat Ron Barassi for Melbourne's best and fairest, in 1962 and 1963. He eventually won three club awards (bettered at the club by only Allan La Fontaine and Jim Stynes, who won four apiece).

"I suppose I must have had something," he finally admits. "I was fairly consistent."

“Fairly” is an understatement. Mann finished in the top three in the club best and fairest in each of his last seven seasons at Melbourne, and on four occasions was in the top 10 in the Brownlow Medal.

Mann played a leading role in the Demons' 1964 triumph, slotting a freakish, match-winning goal from the boundary line at Glenferrie Oval in a critical round 17 match, and amassing 24 kicks and 10 marks in the grand final against Collingwood.

That grand final almost became one of Mann's worst moments.

With Melbourne trailing in the dying stages, he took a screamer but then missed an easy set shot. If the Demons had lost, he wouldn't have returned to the changerooms; he would have left with the crowd.

Neil Crompton's legendary goal saved him that humiliation.

A contractual dispute with the Demons prompted Mann to take the coaching job at South Fremantle in 1969, and he took the club to a premiership the next year.

Mann later returned to Melbourne, coaching the under 19s before becoming a club director and serving as CEO in from 1992-97.