NOT MANY people know a knockabout farmer from Pyramid Hill called Colin Mann.
“Stan the Man”, though, is a different story. Everyone knows Stan.
In the world of regional tennis he’s a Legend, officially, having been elevated to that status at the 2025 Tennis Victoria Country Week event at Swan Hill last week.
The award came as a shock to Stan, who has been playing Country Week since about 1989 at Swan Hill – and for about 15 years before that at Bendigo.
“It was a surprise,” he tells the Loddon Herald. “I had no clue.
“It turns out a few of the jokers I know put my name forward.”
Stan – there’s no point calling him Colin – was one of six named as Legends this year, placing him among only 38 people with that title.
He’s pretty chuffed to be in that elite category: “It’s all I’ve ever done. I haven’t been useful in any other department.”
Stan’s Country Week exploits began when he was 15, and he is 66 now, with no plans to call it quits any time soon.
“I’ve missed maybe three or four events over the years when the kids were young and we sometimes struggled to get a team going.”
And given the citation for his Legend elevation – “He epitomises Country Week and his determination to win on the court is only surpassed by his desire to catch up with the many friends he’s made over the 40-plus years of playing” – it’s fair to say he enjoys the social side of the game as much as tennis.
The citation also notes: “Always keen to share a story and a beer, Stan has always been committed to ensuring Pyramid Hill fields a team at Country Week.”
“It’s not just about the tennis,” Stan says. “The people you meet, it’s fantastic.
“Someone said to me that in all their years at Country Week they’ve never seen a disagreement or a blue at any of the social functions where everyone’s enjoying a few drinks.
“I never have either.”
According to Stan, at Country Week you have “the fun part and the tennis.
“I’ve pulled back on the partying side of things, but it’s still more fun than farming.”
He claims he “now hopeless” with racquet in hand, although he admits to having won a few singles competitions at Pyramid Hill over the years.
Up until recently, tennis was a year-round pursuit for Stan, with a group of family and friends playing most Fridays at Pyramid Hill, and pennant on a Saturday in summer.
He started in the under-16s when he was less than 10 years of age, and while he played a little basketball and cricket as a junior, tennis always was the sport for him.
“At cricket we used to play two-day games, and one week you’d bat and the next week you’d stand out in the hot sun all day,” Stan says.
Football, too, had no appeal.
“I played a few games for the Pyramid Hill fourths, and a few for the Macorna thirds,” he says.
“I’ve got two boys who just love footy, but it wasn’t for me.”
Stan admits to having hated football training, especially the amount of running required.
“I could run like a greyhound, long distances, just for the fun of it, but not at training.”
So, at the age of 16 or 17 he pulled the pin on footy.
Tennis gets an altogether different response: “It’s a good game, a great game, an awesome game. It’s very social. I could recommend it to anyone.”
Country Week is a chance to run into old friends and to meet new ones.
“People tend to keep coming back, and I’m not the oldest bloke by a long shot. I met one guy from Bendigo who was 74,” Stan says.
These days his son David runs the family farm. “I just do what I’m told now,” Stan says.
In a shed on the farm sits a small aeroplane.
It’s Stan’s. He got his pilot’s licence in 2016 at the Bendigo Flying Club.
“It’s ready to rock and roll,” he says.
“I’m a recreational pilot and I can only fly planes under 600kgs.”
He intends to kick it into life when he has the time, but he is still working, and also coming to terms with a tsunami of grandchildren.
“Until six weeks ago I had a favourite grandchild,” Stans says.
“Now we have got three, and another coming in the next month, so I don’t have a favourite any more.”
David is set to be a father for the second time, while Stan’s daughter Chelsea and his other son Scott have just had a boy and a girl respectively.
And just how did anonymous Colin Mann become local legend “Stan the Man”? “I went to Kerang High School for three years, and some silly bugger decided to name me after a famous dodgy crook,” he says. “Someone christened me ‘Stan the Man’ and it just stuck”
In passing, Stan notes that the Pyramid Hill tennis courts are right next to the bowls club. Might that be his next sporting move?
“It’s not in my plans at the moment,” he says.
“I tried it a couple of times years ago, and it was boring me to death. Too slow.”
Country Week saw fellow Loddon Valley player Michelle Balic lead her Tandara team to victory in women’s section one.