One of our old boys, Ralph Lane, will be on with Finey at 9pm tonight. 1116 SEN if anyone's interested....

His background below (courtesy Demonwiki)......

http://demonwiki.org/tiki-index.php?page=Ralph%20Lane

Did anyone listen? No doubt it'd have covered Lane's debut year Wooden Spoon (1 win) and thence the climb up the ladder (9 wins in '52), we know the rest.

There's no doubt things can turn around quickly but, compared with what has been happening recently, there's a major difference. WE had a Coach who became one of the best of all time and a person who was "Melbourne through and through". Norm didn't arrive as a Premiership Coach but he'd played in Demon Premierships and had coached Fitzroy. He wasn't at the helm in the Spoon year, that was Alan La Fontaine.

In his first year Norm actually had 9 1/2 wins, there was a draw against Carlton. The only bad loss was against Geelong at Kardinia Park (56), the next worse was by 21.

Geelong only lost two games for the year and were Premiers. In Round 1 the Cats beat Melbourne by a solitary goal.

It's a nice trip down memory lane if yours goes back that far, but has zero relevance to today.

I'll be honest, I struggle to maintain interest in things that happened 20-30 years before I was born.

It's a nice trip down memory lane if yours goes back that far, but has zero relevance to today.

I'll be honest, I struggle to maintain interest in things that happened 20-30 years before I was born.

My point was actually that it is nice to have the right man for the job.

The data derives from "Every Game Ever Played" (but I do very thankfully recall from about 1957 on).