I’m not a superstitious man. I don’t believe in Astrology, the Loch Ness Monster or that Terry Wallace really ever had a five-year plan.

I do however believe in the curse of Norm Smith. Why? Because I am a man of science (despite barely passing it at school) and the curse of Norm Smith has more supporting evidence than the passing fad that is evolution.

Norm Smith was as player and coach for Melbourne from 1937 to 1967 (with a few short detours). He invented modern coaching.

He played in four Premierships for Melbourne and coached the demons to six flags. That means he was involved in ten out of the twelve Premierships Melbourne has won.

This included a run where they made the Grand Final in 1954, lost to Footscray, won the Premiership in 1955, 1956 and 1957, were beaten by Collingwood in 1958, and then won flags again in 1959 and 1960.

Melbourne entered the 1960s as the powerhouse club of the league and the team of the Establishment (I swear this is all true. Really).

In 1964 Melbourne won its 12th flag. The future was bright.

Yet a storm was brewing. One that would curse the club till quite possibly the end of time (perhaps longer).

On a dark Friday night in 1965 a courier delivered a termination notice to Smith at his home. A courier! It was the 1960′s equivalent of being sacked by text.

The sacking was a result of long simmering tension between the committee and the coach which was further fuelled by Ron Barassi’s controversial move to Carlton that year.

There were suspicions Smith had supported this move to rid himself of a potential rival as coach. Something that was patently untrue. It instead had all the hallmarks of a committee who thought the coach had got too big for his boots.

Smith gave an emotional interview to Tony Charlton following the sacking. The interview shows how passionate Smith was about Melbourne. A passion that arguably wouldn’t be matched again. Here is a short feature of the fallout:

Smith was reinstated shortly after due to overwhelming media and supporter pressure but the damage was done. He was gone by 1967.

The manner of Smith’s sacking and the fact he was sacked at all has resulted in a curse that is real in the way reality TV is not. Who put the curse on? Its best if we don’t worry about facts too much, they tend to get in the way of curses.

It took 22 years, from the sacking, for the Demons to make the finals again in 1987. Not just the Grand Final, the finals at all. Twenty-two years! I almost managed to finish high school in that time.

Considering this was the club of the establishment, it is amazing how this was allowed to happen. Let’s be honest, despite the jokes, the ski fields in Victoria are not that good.

In 1988, when the Demons finally made it back to the Grand Final they were smashed by Hawthorn by 96 points.

Their 2000 Grand Final appearance was not much to write home about with the game over in the first quarter and the Bombers cruising to a 60 point win. The curse was still angry.

Throughout these events the curse of Norm Smith has reached out time and time again to bring misfortune on the club.

The curse was in full effect in the 1987 preliminary final when club legend Jim Stynes famously crossed the mark to allow Hawthorn to kick a goal after the siren to win.

Perhaps an even bigger impact of the curse was the impact on the career of Melbourne player David Schwarz.

It’s easy to forget how good a player David Schwarz was. In 1994 he led the competition in marks. He was on his way to being a superstar. The first Melbourne would have had in a very long time. Don’t believe me? Have a look at this:

The curse however ensured Schwarz would suffer not one, not two but three serious knee injuries. Injuries are part of the game but Schwarz was a once in a generation player for the Demons and his injuries took away the star power and the key forward Melbourne have lacked since the sixties.

Since then, the bad luck has continued. In recent years the curse manifest on Earth, in the form of the unholy trinity of Cameron Schwab, Chris Connolly and Mark Neeld.

Now we have poor Christian Petracca injure his anterior cruciate ligament at training. He'll miss out on all of 2015. This is devastating for him and for the fans.

The curse of Norm Smith is real and shows no sign of calming down.

The curse’s impact is mostly felt on the supporters. It ensures that what can go wrong, does go wrong at the worst possible moment.

But curses are made to be broken.

My favourite sporting curse of all time was the curse of the Bambino. In 1918 the Boston Red Sox, a championship club at the time, traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.

Babe Ruth would go on to become the greatest player of all time. For the Red Sox, the curse resulted in an 86-year period of no World Series wins. In the same time the Yankees went on to win 27 championships.

Red Sox fans went to great lengths to break the curse including placing a Red Sox cap on top of Mt Everest.

In 2004 the curse was finally broken. How did they do it? By sensible drafting and recruiting of players, good management and some luck.

To me, despite my superstitious belief in the curse of Norm Smith, I’m afraid the same will be the only cure to the curse.

At the moment it seems while things such as good management and sensible drafting seem to be being addressed, one thing remains beyond Melbourne, just the tiniest sliver of good luck.