UPDATED: The West Adelaide Football Club appears to have averted a legal threat to its survival on the eve its appearance in the Foxtel Cup Grand Final.

A notice to wind up the club has been filed by one of the club’s creditors.

But this afternoon the creditor, Australian Liquor Marketers, said it expected to withdraw the notice ahead of a hearing in the Supreme Court next Tuesday.

“We anticipate the matter will be completed by the hearing date at which time we will be withdrawing from the action,” ALM credit manager Wendy Cooper told InDaily in a statement.

The club said it would pay the debt today, but confirmed it has had to sell assets to remain solvent.

The debt is understood to be around $9000. Cooper said ALM had been in negotiations with the club through a collection agent for more than six months.

“We’ve had it with a collection agent. They’ve been talking to the collection agent; they’ve just not been doing what they’ve been promising. And so it got to a point where we’re not receiving a payment for the outstanding debt, so we’ve issued them with a winding up.”

The club play East Fremantle tomorrow night at AAMI Stadium in the Foxtel Cup Grand Final.

Winning the cup would deliver $100,000 to the club’s coffers.

The club operates a licenced bar, The Venue at Richmond.

West Adelaide Football Club’s financial position has been deteriorating for some time, club stalwarts told InDaily.

Rob Kerin, former State premier and the club’s number one ticket holder, said the club had been struggling.

“It’s been difficult for a while,” Kerin said today.

“Westies are like a number of SANFL clubs who are finding it tough at the moment.”

West Adelaide CEO Kym Russell told InDaily the club’s debts were manageable and he expected to record a profit next year.

“We’ve refinanced, we’ve sold some gaming machine entitlements during the year, and we’re waiting on a settlement of some funds. Our operating costs are back in line. We’re expecting to record a profit this year. It’s just a timing difference between cash going out and cash coming in.”

Russell said he’d always planned to pay the debt to ALM today. Delays in paying were down to problems with cashflow, he said.

“It’s just a debt that we owe, that was going to be paid today. It was always planned by us to pay today.  It’s a small debt in the scheme of things. The debt has been outstanding for a while. We have been chipping away at it.

“We’ve had other issues in regard to getting money coming in to the club. Items that we thought were going to be coming in have been delayed.”

The club had implemented a cost-cutting program but the benefits of that were only slowly being seen, Russell said.

“We’ve made structural changes, we’ve cut costs. The problem is the changes take a bit of time to flow through. You might only save $1000 a week, so it takes time to build up.”

The club would not be wound up, he said.

“It’d be disappointing if that happens. We’ll be making the payment today to them, which is what they requested in their letter that it needed to be paid by today. It will be paid by today.”

However, the club’s latest annual report paints a gloomy picture.

“The 2012 year has resulted in losses and consequently the net equity of the West Adelaide Football Club,” finance director Wayne Henson said in his report to members.

“The Club recorded a consolidated loss of $505,027 for 2012 compared to a loss of $139,884 in 2011 and a loss of $81,653 in 2010.

“The board appreciates that this situation is unacceptable and we have spent many hours developing a plan for the future, which is being implemented but has not had a significant impact at this point,” Henson reported.

Henson said the club’s financial difficulties were attributed to a decline in poker machine revenue, declining bar sales and an uncertain economic environment as people spend less during uncertain economic times.

SANFL President John Olsen said he was confident West Adelaide could work its way through the current difficulties.

“They’ve had their financial issues for a while,” Olsen said.

“But they’re working their way through them and I’m confident they can resolve them.”