Former Socceroo Zane returned from Europe to move back to Newcastle in 2010.

He joined the Jets as W-League coach in 2011, before taking over the youth team and becoming a first-team assistant coach.

The 40-year-old also had a 12-game spell as caretaker coach in 2014 after the sacking of Gary van Egmond.

The Jets have amazingly gone from claiming the wooden spoon last season to finishing second and securing a place in the Grand Final this weekend against Melbourne Victory.

The club had not reached the finals since 2010 and have gone through eight different head coaches in that time. It was arguably the basket case of the A-League when Tinkler lost the license in 2015.

"The turnaround's been massive," Zane admitted to FourFourTwo.

"I’m not going to downplay how great a season we’ve had in comparison to the previous two seasons or three seasons. But the margins are so tight in the A-League. You know the big clubs are always going to spend a bit more money than you so automatically that makes it difficult.

"The budget does reflect quite often the position of teams. The public’s waited so long, if you looked at the team we had last season compared to this year you know the team this year is going to do a lot better.

"The recruitment was very good, in regards to staff and to players. If you looked back 12 months ago and asked if we were going to make the six, well I think most would have hoped to make the six.

"The year that Gary left it came down to the last day of the season. Sydney FC won their match against Perth and that knocked us out of the finals. We haven’t been too far off, but the big thing that has changed for me has been the recruitment of Ernie and we’ve brought in some key players with experience.

"We definitely haven’t had those players in the last three or four seasons. So that’s a pat on the back to the people at the club that have made that happen."

A Newcastle local who cut his teeth as a junior with Cessnock City Hornets and Adamstown Rosebud, Zane played in the NSL with the Newcastle Breakers in the 1990s before heading to Northern Spirit and then overseas.

He knows full well the on-field and off-field troubles Newcaslte clubs have had in national competitions over the years.

"People have recognized as soon as we’ve fallen out of the league that this just can’t happen," he said.

"We’ve also been recognized as being a great breeding ground for football and as having passionate fans up here.

"We’ve had different management and administration all through those eras, but one that thing that’s always happened that whenever we’ve fallen out of the league somebody’s always recognized that we needed to be in it, and the fans have always voted with their feet and turned up to games."

Zane joined the Jets in the early days of the Tinkler ownership. He admits things started off well under the controversial mining boss.

"It’s a tough one," he said.

"There was a lot of good intentions. It wasn’t all doom and gloom. It was a pretty exciting time at the beginning. When I came back Branko was in charge and it was only recently they’d been in the finals. It was a club that expected to be in the finals.

"Everything seemed normal when I came back. When Tinkler came it was like – wow, now the club can really kick on. At the time with the healthy cash injection from a wealthy individual the town was buzzing. He’s put money into surfing events, into rugby league, into soccer.

"I think every thought we’d go to the next level and start bringing in big players. And then he matched it, he put his money where his mouth was. To be fair, he did invest a lot and lost a lot of money along the way trying to find it.

"He brought in people like Jason Culina, Michael Bridges and Heskey along the way. If you look at it now, the big thing we’ve done now is recruitment. Although we spent a lot of money back then I don’t think much due diligence was going into who we were recruiting or what style we were going to play.

"It was money, probably in hindsight, that ended up being wasted. It wasn’t Gary’s decisions. A lot of money, but also a lot of confusion on who was actually in control of things. It proved to be the downfall in the end."

Chinese businessman Martin Lee took over the Jets in 2016 after Tinkler went bust. Former Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick was appointed last year and has quickly transformed the fortunes of the team in just a season.

"An experienced manager can bind a team," Zane said.

"We’ve had moments this year where games have been in the balance and a half-time talk… he’s experienced and he doesn’t get flustered. He’s not focused on individual games, the focus is on the performance so we were prepared for the finals.

"It was a clear message that we don’t need to win every game, but we need to win enough games to get to the finals and every game we do play is preparation for the finals. It’s been a process so the players aren’t under pressure for a specific match.

"He’s just a calm manager and he’s very good across all aspects all the way through to delivering sessions on the field. He finds the right words to say, whether it be a harsh word or a friendly word. I think he’s worked out how life works."

"I don’t think many people thought he could come to a regional club and play like he did with Victory. We just play on the front foot, but he’s convinced people that’s how we’re going to play and the players have bought into it. It’s been great to watch the style evolve over the season."

Zane believes the combination of Merrick, CEO Lawrie McKinna and football operations manager Joel Griffiths has proved crucial in restoring the club.

The trio has recruited smartly and effectively without spending millions.

"I don’t think we’ve spent crazy amounts, we’d still be in the bottom half of spend across all the clubs," the former Lillestrom centre forward said.

"But we have someone there who hopefully now will put a little more into it and we have that ownership where it’s not on shakey ground anymore. He lets Lawrie do this thing, Lawrie lets Ernie do his thing.

"It’s really good having football people involved in the club like Joel and Lawrie who let Ernie do what he needs to do and give him what he needs to get the job done. Lawrie’s realized that we don’t have crazy amounts of money to go and waste.


"So what he’s done is done the opposite – he’s totally engaged the community and used his biggest strength, which is his charm. He’s worked hard to make sure people at least give us another chance and I think, at the same time, the players have helped him get his message across because we’re playing great football."

Zane said the target now for the Jets is to make sure the club are continual A-League title challengers in the years to come, and not revert to the lean seasons of the past.

"People have said to me the result on Saturday doesn’t matter, what the club has done this season is bring an attacking style of football and get people back attending games again," he said.

"It’s one season as well, the big thing now is we’ve got a solid owner, we’ve got management in place, the results to sustain them over the next five years will be a massive challenge."