![\"Matthew](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/3d91f97eac61c147d9f8bd4c54a612d9.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nCoaches aren\u2019t supposed to have favourites, however it\u2019s only human nature that some players will endear themselves more than others. <\/p>\n
Coach-player relationships can be complicated. This was particularly so before footballers were full-time professionals, cossetted by a battery of coaches, sports scientists, strength and conditioning experts, psychologists, dieticians and whoever else that might have entered their orbit of athletic preparation.<\/p>\n
It was in the mid 1990s that AFL players morphed into full-time professionals. Before that you came together three or four times a week. Fifty-odd players, a coach, an assistant coach, and a fitness coach who might also have doubled as a weight-training instructor, trying to cram it all into a two-hour training session. <\/p>\n
Some players did more on their own volition \u2013 Phil Carman and Craig Bradley come to mind. Rodney Maynard, one of the original Crows, also never stopped running. Most, however, did the minimum.<\/p>\n
Obviously, some players stood out \u2013 for the right reason as well as the wrong. <\/p>\n
Bruce Lindner always stood out. He was a brilliant player. Explosive, high-marking, evasive, long kicking and powerful. The highlights package featuring his times at West Adelaide, Geelong and the Crows is as is as good as any footballer\u2019s you will see. <\/p>\n
He carried himself with an air of confidence – some might have said arrogance – and while he challenged authority, he understood Aussie rules was above all, a team game. <\/p>\n
His nickname \u201cThe Prez\u201d gave an indication. The legendary West Adelaide footballer and long-serving general manager, Doug Thomas, dubbed him \u201cThe President\u201d when he insisted his meeting with Thomas take precedence over one with Bob Lee, who was the actual president of West Adelaide. Here was someone confident in his own ability.<\/p>\n
He had a good football pedigree. His uncles were Don and \u201cHank\u201d Lindner. Don Lindner was particularly famous for his high-marking exploits and the 1967 Magarey Medal which was awarded retrospectively after he had initially lost it on a countback to Trevor \u201cBubbles\u201d Obst.<\/p>\n
Bruce Lindner\u2019s father had the makings of a great player but was struck down with polio in his teenage years. He couldn\u2019t play football but satisfied that competitive sporting passion with a career in lawn bowls.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But his father was a troubled soul and Bruce remembers his childhood growing up in the Riverland with a certain wanderlust, without familial affection and not much attention to schoolwork. <\/p>\n
But he could always play footy and it wasn\u2019t long before the SANFL clubs came calling.<\/p>\n
He signed with West Adelaide, won the reserves Magarey Medal and lived the sporting and social life of a SANFL league footballer without really challenging his full potential. That was until Larry Watson, brother of Essendon champion Tim, arrived at West Adelaide and introduced him to a new level of professionalism and preparation. <\/p>\n
Then Neil Kerley was appointed coach in 1981 and led the team to the famous premiership in 1983. Those who have played under Kerley understand the expectation that he had of his players and their team. <\/p>\n
Lindner flourished under Kerley. There is an imbedded reverence when Lindner talks about him. It was the exactly style of coaching he needed. <\/p>\n
Of course, the Victorian clubs noticed him. Eventually Geelong offered him terms too good to resist and he signed with them on a contract unusually favourable to the player. <\/p>\n
His time in Victoria was beset by serious injury (he suffered a dislocated ankle and a spiral fracture of the tibia) but in 1987, amongst names like Ablett and Brownless, he led Geelong\u2019s goal-kicking. <\/p>\n
But Malcolm Blight\u2019s arrival as senior coach of Geelong hastened his demise at Kardinia Park. Despite a watertight contract, Blight made it clear that there would not be place for him in the Cats line-up. It would be to Adelaide\u2019s advantage.<\/p>\n
In the formation of the Adelaide Football Club, we were only allowed to sign South Australian players even then with a limitation of 10 of those players who had already been drafted by Victorian clubs. It was a restriction that saw Gavin Wanganeen, Darren Jarman, Matthew Robran, David Hynes, Richard Champion, Justin Stariski and others who would have been eligible, move intestate. <\/p>\n
![\"AFL](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/186d3ade091ee16c75bacfb4582a34ff.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
I sometimes muse over how that first Crows team would have looked with a couple of those names in it. We were also allowed to sign South Australian players who had moved interstate but were out of contract. (eg Tony McGuinness, Mark Mickan and Danny Hughes). <\/p>\n
But after some negotiation with Geelong, Bruce Lindner was the first one signed under those terms. He was worse off financially but he was home.<\/p>\n
Lindner didn\u2019t play a lot of football with Adelaide, but the win\/loss ratio is amazing. In the 19 games he played for Adelaide in 1991 and 1992 the Crows won 15.<\/p>\n
His time at Adelaide ended suddenly. He never admitted it to the club administration (although he did tell the coach) that it was an accident on a Ducati motorcycle that finished his career. <\/p>\n
Post football he enjoyed his football notoriety, working in the wine industry and playing golf at which he was, of course, very talented. Marriage to Julie and fatherhood to Sophie completed the family circle. Life was good \u2013 until he noticed discolouration in his urine. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a scary thing for a man to see blood in his urine and while at first he tried to dismiss it, on Julie\u2019s insistence he sought medical advice. A devastating diagnosis initially revealed cancer of the kidney and when, after operations and treatment that looked to have had a satisfactory outcome, he was further diagnosed with cancer of the bladder. <\/p>\n
It might seem that condensing those diagnoses to a single sentence downplays the seriousness of the conditions and the ordeal of recovery but they were seriously life-threatening. <\/p>\n
So much so that confronted with his own mortality, he decided that he should write an account of his life and his journey to recovery. He had never told his daughter his life story.<\/p>\n
What started out as a few notes on his phone has now become a fully-fledged novel and fund-raising exercise for ANZUP, the leading cancer cooperative trials group. <\/p>\n
His book is dedicated to \u201cthose that have been affected either directly or indirectly by illness and to my daughter Sophie\u201d. On Friday, at a luncheon at his beloved Kooyonga Golf Club which doubled as a book launch and a fundraising effort, he recounted his ordeal. <\/p>\n
In a cross he described as being between a \u201cwake and a roast\u201d, the guests were entertained by cameos from personalities and friends such as the Premier, winemaker Geoff Merrill, Angels rock legend John Brewster, Barb Kerley and golfer Robert Allenby. <\/p>\n
But the highlight was his daughter Sophie who spoke with eloquence, humour and emotion.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s impossible not to like Bruce Lindner. He wasn\u2019t the hardest trainer, he wasn\u2019t the most dedicated to the cause, he enjoyed himself away from footy, but there are some qualities that are hard to define. <\/p>\n
As a collection they are best described as charisma. He had it in spades. I guess that\u2019s why some footballers impress more than others.<\/p>\n
Injuries may have restricted him reaching his full capability but he was great to watch and he was great to coach. <\/p>\n
\u201cTime On In The Last\u201d is Bruce Lindner\u2019s book. You have to read it to see the ending.<\/p>\n
Graham Cornes OAM, is a former Australian Rules footballer, inaugural Adelaide Crows coach and media personality. He has spent a lifetime in AFL football as a successful player and coach, culminating in his admission to the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coaches aren\u2019t supposed to have favourites, however it\u2019s only human nature that some players will endear themselves 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<\/a>Graham Cornes<\/a>Sports columnist <\/p>\n