Wimmera raised twins Ian and David Manson reflect on their incredible sporting careers in basketball and football

The two brothers attended Horsham Technical School in the 1960s and lived on their family farm near Remlaw.

Since their move in 1969, they have both gone onto have extremely accomplished sporting and professional careers; Ian's sport of choice basketball and David's Australian rules football.

Ian played 66 games in the NBL between 1979 and 1984 for St Kilda, Geelong and Coburg, as well as representing the Australian Boomers side in 1975. He was also a part of the St Kilda Saints side that won the first-ever NBL championship in 1979.

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David played 38 games for the Geelong Cats in the VFL (now the AFL) as a ruckman, as well as spending time with Geelong West in the VFA

Each standing at an imposing six feet, eight inches tall, sport was always going to be an area that the twins would succeed at, however, it wasn't always the plan.

"We probably never had dreams or aspired to do anything greater than just participation," David said.

Extraordinarily, as children neither David nor Ian played organised sport on weekends in Horsham, only playing with their school teams.

"We probably didn't start playing footy or playing much sport other than in the schoolyard," David said.

"I played footy at Horsham tech, my brother played footy at Horsham Tech and he wasn't that interested in it but he played it.

"We probably spent hours at home on the farm kicking a footy to one another."

In Geelong, the brothers focused on their studies both graduating with science degrees at the Gordon institute of technology. They both went on to work as textile chemists while playing football and basketball.

David started his football career with Thompson in the Geelong and District Football League before heading to Geelong West where he won a VFA first division premiership and best and fairest in 1975.

It was during this time that the Geelong Cats first took notice of him, however on the advice of his coach, he knocked back an offer to join them ahead of 1975, choosing to play out the year with the Geelong West.

The following year (1976) though the chance to play in the VFL was too good to refuse.

The ruckman described his first season as a semi-successful year after playing 13 games in a Cats' side that lost in the semi-finals.

"Geelong won the first ten games and fell in a heap for the last ten games," he said.

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In 1978 David played 19 games for the Cats, who eventually lost to Carlton in the elimination final.

"78 I had my best year with the club and finished around 13th in the best and fairest," David said.

"Most of my games that year were played on the interchange."

David then suffered injuries and unfortunately didn't play another game with the Cats after 1978.

That wasn't the end of his journey in football though, as he went on to coach and play for local sides in Geelong, Tasmania and Newcastle, where he was part of a side that won the Black Diamond Cup - Australia's oldest sporting trophy that is still competed for.

As for Ian and his basketball career, he began with a local senior side in Geelong, without playing any junior basketball.

"I started in Geelong, I played three games in B Grade and they bumped me straight into A grade," Ian said.

"I didn't move to the big league until I had a bachelor of applied science."

Ian's basketball progressed at a rapid pace and before long he was representing the Australian Boomers side in a 1975 Oceania series, under legendary Australian coach and player Lindsay Gaze.

"I made an Australian team before I played for Vic Metro," he said.

"My record between 74 through to 78 or so, I think I was the best centre we had in Australia at that time."

As previously mentioned Ian began his NBL career in 1979 at St Kilda where the Saints won the inaugural NBL title. Impressively the side did so without any overseas imports.

"That's something that will be hard to beat because we only had Australian players," he said.

Ian then went onto represent NBL clubs Geelong and Coburg. All up he played 66 NBL games, with a career game-high of 24 points and eight rebounds.

He appeared in three NBL grand finals (one win) to go with several other state and national titles.

Looking back the now 70-year-old has fond memories of his time playing elite basketball in Australia.

"I'm just grateful to have played mainly in winning teams at the top level in this country for 13 or 14 years," he said.

In addition to their science degrees, both brothers also attained nutrition degrees from Deakin University during their careers, which led to David working as a dietician for many years all over the east coast.

These days both Mansons live on the Gold Coast with their families, where they work in management rights. They're both still active with David playing tennis and Ian playing basketball two to three times a week.

Although it's been a long time since they've both been back to Horsham, the town still holds a special place in their hearts. Both brothers can be seen regularly contributing photos and reconnecting with old friends on the Lost Horsham Facebook page.

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