One of the game's finest departed this week with the death of Alan Buckley.
For anyone too young to have been fortunate enough to see him play, he was a centre of pure class. He won seven Great Britain caps and spent his entire career with Swinton - which dates him immediately.
He was part of that famous three-quarter line - with Speed, Fleet and Stopford - which won the old Championship two years running, in 1962-63 and 1963-64.
Alan hadn't been particularly well, but his death at the age of 66, in his car in Tesco's car-park in Walkden, still came as a shock.
I write before his funeral, but I'm sure the current Swinton chairman, John Kidd, will have been right in saying that there would be a lot more people at it than watch Swinton these days.
It has become easy to forget what a brilliant side they had in the 60s, with players like Ken Gowers and Dave Robinson as well as the aforementioned foursome. If you wanted to pick an all-time Swinton team, they would all be in it. Anyone from the last 40 years? Well, Danny Wilson and Les Holliday would have a shout. And Andy Coley, who had such a big hand in an astonishing miscarriage of justice when Wigan beat Huddersfield last Sunday, started his career there.
Swinton and the rest of the National League begin their seasons this weekend, of course. And the Lions have the short straw, I warn them now, of starting against a Blackpool side which is, to put it mildly, due for a win.
It's good to see that Sky are showing Thursday night matches again and there will be some good ones - starting with Salford at Leigh. Getting games like that on the box has been one of the most welcome developments in recent years.
(Picture: Getty Images)
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