One of the best players to pull on a Swan Districts guernsey, Peter Manning, began his career a year too late for the club's first hat trick of premierships and retired seven years too early for the second one.  In the words of former teammate and Swan Districts captain coach Fred Castledine, Manning was “a brilliant player, and one of Swans best in my time”. Peter Manning was always going to be a Swan. Not only was he a lifetime Swans supporter, but long serving Swan Districts committeeman and club stalwart Bob Manning was a second cousin. Invited by coach Haydn Bunton to Bassendean Oval when he was seventeen and playing with Bayswater juniors, Manning went to Swans the following season. He started in the thirds, before playing three games with the seconds, and made his debut in round seventeen of the 1964 season, against South Fremantle. Starting on the bench, a hamstring injury to Tom Stannage gave the young tyro his first taste of league football. From that game on, Manning forged himself a regular berth on the wing for the black and whites.  A fast, elusive, classy ball handler, the five foot ten Peter Manning soon became one of the top wingmen in the competition, and represented Western Australia as a nineteen year old in his second season.  He was one of Swans leading players in their quest for another flag in 1965, which fell just short of the line with a loss to East Fremantle. Manning was moved into the centre in 1967, and showed his appreciation with a scintillating  season, culminating in his first fairest and best award, a feat he was to repeat in 1971 and 1973.  Manning's 1967 fairest and best award was an achievement in itself. Billy Walker had a mortgage on the Swan Districts fairest and best(Swan Medal), winning it  in the years 1965 to 1970 inclusive, except for 1967, when Manning was the victor.  Selected in the 1969 Carnival side, Manning played in the centre for Western Australia against Victoria and Tasmania. He played a total of twelve games for the State, mainly on the centreline or at half forward. He also was twice the winner of Radio 6IX's WANFL Best Position Player award.  In 1975, at the age of twenty nine, after two hundred and one games with Swan Districts plus his twelve appearances  for Western Australia, Peter Manning hung up the boots. Manning repeated the opinion of most others of his era when asked about the best player he'd seen. “Polly Farmer,” he said, while he rated Cam Blakemore of Subiaco hardest to beat. And best team mate was no surprise either. “Billy Walker.” Peter added to our album of Malcolm Brown stories with this anecdote. “It was on an interstate flight with the State team,” he related. “The stewardess was giving her spiel about inflatable life jackets and giving the usual instructions on the use of them. Brownie was sitting in an aisle seat and gave the cord on the jacket a yank as she was about halfway through. The jacket inflated, causing the unfortunate hostie's wig to fall off. The poor girl was understandably distraught.”   An accountant, Peter Manning is semi retired these days.  A keen surfer, he has moved to Margaret River with wife Marjorie. They have two sons and a daughter.  Peter Manning was named in the Swan Districts official Team of the Century, which was fitting recognition  for a talented footballer. That he played in an era when Swan Districts were not the power that they were immediately before and a few years after was unfortunate but doesn't lessen the respect in which he is held at Bassendean as one of the club's great players.