Duane Darrin Mann (born 28 June 1965) is a New Zealand former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

ed in the 2000s. A

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

and New Zealand international representative , he captained both sides. Mann played his club football for New Zealand sides Glenora, North Harbour,

Auckland Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

and Counties Manukau, as well as for English club,

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

Background

Of Maori and Tongan descent, Mann was born in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

on 28 June 1965 into a family that already had a large presence in rugby league, with his father

Don Mann Don Mann is a New Zealand rugby league footballer who represented New Zealand in the 1972 World Cup. Playing career Mann played in the Auckland Rugby League competition for both Glenora and Ponsonby United. In 1972, while playing for Ponson ...

representing New Zealand, his cousin

Esau Esau is the elder son of Isaac in the Hebrew Bible. He is mentioned in the Book of Genesis and by the minor prophet, prophets Obadiah and Malachi. The story of Jacob and Esau reflects the historical relationship between Israel and Edom, aiming ...

going on to play for Tonga, and his brother Don Jr., going on to work in administration at the

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

. He is also the cousin of fellow New Zealand and Tongan international,

George George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Gior ...

.Coffey and Wood ''The Kiwis: 100 Years of International Rugby League''

Playing career

1980s

Mann attended

Kelston Boys High School Kelston Boys' High School ("KBHS") () is an all-boys state secondary school in Kelston, a suburb in the Waitakere region of Auckland, New Zealand. It was created in 1963 when the roll of Kelston High School (formed in 1954) became too large for ...

and played for the

Glenora Bears The Glenora Bears are a rugby league football club based in Glen Eden, Glen Eden, New Zealand who compete in Auckland Rugby League's Fox Memorial competition. History The club was established in 1931 Auckland Rugby League season, 1931 when t ...

from schoolboys right up to premier grade. When the

Tonga national rugby league team The Tonga national rugby league team () represents Tonga in rugby league football. They are currently the IRL Men's World Rankings, fifth ranked team in the world. The team was formed to compete in the 1986 Pacific Cup, and have competed at si ...

was first formed to compete in the

1986 Pacific Cup The 1986 Pacific Cup was the 3rd Pacific Cup, a rugby league tournament held between Pacific teams. The tournament was hosted in the Cook Islands and eventually won by the New Zealand Māori side, who defeated Western Samoa in the final. Backgrou ...

he was selected to play in the side, making his international début. Mann made his début for the

Auckland rugby league team The Auckland rugby league team is the team which traditionally represents all of the clubs which play in the Auckland Rugby League competition. As well as a senior men's team there are also Auckland representative teams throughout the various a ...

in 1987 and played in their 30-14 win over

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

in 1988. He was also selected to represent Tonga at the

1988 Pacific Cup The 1988 Pacific Cup was the fourth edition of the Pacific Cup, a rugby league tournament held between Pacific teams. The tournament was hosted by Western Samoa and eventually won by the New Zealand Māori side, who defeated Western Samoa 26-16 i ...

Apia Apia () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Samoa. It is located on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second-largest island. Apia falls within the political district (''itūmālō'') of Tuamasaga. The Apia Urban A ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

. In 1989 Mann signed for the

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

in the English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

.Duane Mann
''Training Plus'' During the

1989 Kangaroo tour of New Zealand The 1989 Kangaroo Tour of New Zealand was a mid-season tour of New Zealand by the Australia national rugby league team. The Australians played six matches on tour, including a three test series against the New Zealand national rugby league team. Th ...

he was selected to play for the Kiwis against Australia. From 1989 to 1993 Mann would play in 24 consecutive tests, including matches that formed part of the 1989–1992 World Cup.

1990s

Mann played for

as a in their 14-36 defeat by

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

in the

1990 Challenge Cup Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno D ...

Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

on Saturday 28 April 1990, in front of a crowd of 77,729. During the

1990 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France The 1990 Kangaroo Tour was the seventeenth Kangaroo Tour, where the Australian national rugby league team (known as the XXXX Kangaroos due to sponsorship reasons) travelled to Europe and played eighteen matches against British and French cl ...

he played for his club Warrington against Australia. Mann played in

's 12-2 victory over

Bradford Northern The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, and compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. The club have won the League Championship six times, the Challenge Cup f ...

in the 1990–91 Regal Trophy Final at

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

on Saturday 12 January 1991. Mann played for three seasons in England before returning home to Auckland and playing a season for the

North Harbour Sea Eagles The North Harbour Sea Eagles were a New Zealand rugby league club that represented the North Shore and Rodney District in the Lion Red Cup from 1994 to 1996. For the first two seasons they were coached by Graeme Norton. There two main feeder cl ...

who he captained to win the

1994 Lion Red Cup The 1994 New Zealand rugby league season was the 87th season of rugby league in New Zealand. The main feature of the season was the inaugural Lion Red Cup competition that was run by the New Zealand Rugby League. The North Harbour Sea Eagles won ...

. In 1994 he was made captain of the New Zealand side. Mann was signed by the

who were to enter the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission Limited (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League Limited known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australi ...

competition in 1995, and played in the club's inaugural match. That year he switched national allegiance back to Tonga whom he captained in both the

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

and later the 2000 World Cup tournaments.Warrington’s World Cup heroes - Duane Mann
''This is Cheshire'', 24 October 2008 Mann left the Warriors in 1996 and returned to win the Lion Red Cup, as captain of the

Counties Manukau Heroes The Counties Manukau rugby league team represents the Counties Manukau zone in the Albert Baskerville Trophy. Previously, teams representing Southern Auckland and the Franklin (district), New Zealand, Franklin district of New Zealand have competed ...

. He captained and won three successive Fox Memorial Championships with the

in the 1997, 1998 and 1999

Auckland Rugby League The Auckland Rugby League (ARL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in the Auckland Region of New Zealand. Founded in 1909, the ARL has played a pivotal role in the development and promotion of rugby league in Auckland and beyond. ...

competition and again represented

in the 1997 Super League Challenge Cup.

Later life

Mann was occasionally involved in coaching with the Tongan national side, and in 2006 he was co-coach of the team that won the

Pacific Cup The Pacific Cup was a rugby league football competition, inaugurated in 1974, as a development competition for national teams from the Pacific region outside of Australia and New Zealand. The tournament ceased in 2009. In 2019, a similar com ...

. Mann has worked in the sport and education sector for over 15 years and has also run his own retail business and corporate training. Mann also served for a time as the

Junior Development Coach. In 2008 and 2009 he was the head coach of the

in the

. He has also held positions as the coaching development manager with Regional Sports Trusts and the Greater Auckland Coaching Unit, and

New Zealand Rugby League The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) is the governing body for the sport of rugby league, rugby league football in New Zealand.#SPARC-2009, SPARC, 2009: 13 The NZRL was founded on 25 April 1910 in preparation for a 1910 Great Britain Lions tour o ...

's high performance director. Mann was previously Business & Sport Director and also Old Boys Chairman at Kelston Boys High School and occasionally works as a commentator and presenter on Sky TV. In 2010 and 2011 he was the head coach of the

Bay Roskill Vikings The Bay Roskill Vikings are a rugby league football club based in Mount Roskill and Blockhouse Bay, New Zealand, who compete in Auckland Rugby League's Sharman Cup competition. The club was established in 1979. History The club was formed in Oc ...

Match Fit

In 2024, Mann was drafted in to make his debut on episode 2 of ''Match Fit: Union vs. League'' as a medical substitute for Henry Fa'afili, who pulled out before the bronco test due to atrial fibrillation. He gained clearance to substitute when he metabolic age came out -11 against his biological age and finished at 6:37 on his initial bronco test. He improved to 6:20 on the final test. He also made it to a perfect -15 metabolic age at the end of the 15 weeks.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mann, Duane 1965 births Living people Auckland rugby league team players Bay Roskill Vikings coaches Counties Manukau rugby league team players Glenora Bears coaches Glenora Bears players New Zealand national rugby league team captains New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand sportspeople of Tongan descent New Zealand rugby league coaches New Zealand rugby league commentators New Zealand rugby league players New Zealand Warriors captains New Zealand Warriors players North Harbour rugby league team players Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Auckland Tonga national rugby league team captains Tonga national rugby league team coaches Tonga national rugby league team players Tongan rugby league players Warrington Wolves players