The appointment of former Test lock, Bob Lindner as coach did not appear to be enough to save financially embattled Brisbane Past Brothers club from being axed from the 1997 Channel 9 Queensland Cup competition.

Brothers and fellow Brisbane club, Wests, failed to meet a deadline requiring them to provide financial statements to the QRL’s South East Division. Wests Leagues Club at Bardon was placed in the hands of voluntary administrators the previous week.

Football club chairman, Darren Bell claimed Wests’ financial position was not as bad as portrayed in some quarters, and it was hoped the football club could take over the running of the leagues club.

Brothers’ liabilities were believed to exceed $200,000, and even though some players had agreed to play as amateurs, that wasn’t enough to sway the QRL.

Lindner had replaced prominent Carlton and United Brewery executive, Don Gailer as Brothers’ coach, while Wests retained former top five eighth, Wayne Treleavan.

Wests gained a late reprieve at the QRL annual meeting on December 7, but Brothers, despite submissions from president, Pat Maguire and former president, Frank Melit, remained on the outer. But fresh submissions just before Christmas, saw Brothers given the green light.

The 1997 Qld Cup featured 14 clubs: Norths, Souths, Easts, Wests, Wynnum, Redcliffe, Brothers Pine Rivers, Logan City, Ipswich, Burleigh, Toowoomba, Central Qld, Cairns and Port Moresby.

Frank Melit