Australian Football

Between the wars Lindenow competed in the Lindenow Football Association for a time and then in the Bairnsdale Bruthen Football League (BBFL). However, records for both these competitions are extremely difficult to locate, and it is not known how well the club fared.

After world war two the Cats resumed in the BBFL before crossing to the East Gippsland Football League in 1947. They later moved to the Gippsland Football League (GFL), where they were successful in claiming a senior flag in 1963.

The 1974 season saw the GFL amalgamate with the Bairnsdale District Football League to produce a new incarnation of the East Gippsland Football League, with Lindenow among the new competition’s eleven founder members. The Cats struggled at first and did not contest their first grand final until 1980. Opposed by the reigning premiership side in Orbost they showed scant regard for reputations in sweeping to victory by 68 points.

The Cats’ next grand final appearance came in 1985, but they lost by 34 points to Snowy Rovers. Twelve months later they made amends with an emphatic grand final defeat of Wy Yung.

In 1989 Lindenow embarked on a club record three successive grand final appearances, winning the first and last of them against Lakes Entrance and Wy Yung respectively. Between 1995 and 1997 the Cats again managed a hat trick of grand final appearances only to lose every time.

Lindenow’s next grand final appearance came in 2007 but Bairnsdale proved too strong. Three years later this result was repeated but, stung by the defeat, the Cats bounced back in 2011 when they accounted for Wy Yung in the grand final by 62 points, 20.14 (134) to 11.6 (72). Two more losing grand finals followed in 2012 and 2015 before the Cats claimed their sixth EGFL flag in 2016 with a 13.13 (91) to 7.12 (54) grand final defeat of Paynesville. Premiership number seven followed in 2017 as the Cats capped a supremely dominant season with a 14.17 (101) to 9.5 (59) grand final triumph over Lucknow. This was followed by a slight decline in fortunes over the course of a 2018 campaign which ended at the first semi final stage.