Crown witness Joshua Miles Looney also told Supreme Court jurors that after the fight broke out and Tony Brown fell to the floor, he blamed Mr Brown for what had happened in an emotional outburst.

Mr Looney, during evidence-in-chief, said he held a pool cue in his left hand and ‘‘tapped’’ it on the ground near Mr Brown’s head three or four times before the barman asked him what he was doing.

Crown prosecutor John Ransom asked Mr Looney if the pool cue had touched Mr Brown’s head or body and the former Mowbray resident denied any contact.

Mr Looney also said Mr Brown grabbed his glass of beer from him and threw it into the car park outside before the fight.

The second week of the trial of accused brothers Mitchell Clay Dowling, 44, and Jay David Blazely, 40, started on Tuesday in Launceston.

They are contesting eight charges of violence upon four men.

The brawl started in the Mowbray Hotel on July 17, 2013, about 8pm and Mr Brown died afterwards.

The barman on the night, Tyson Montgomery, also gave evidence and was almost tearful when he said Mr Brown had been punched by one of the accused, was on the floor unconscious and looked ‘‘very pale’’.

Under cross-examination from defence counsel Greg Richardson, for Mr Dowling, Mr Montgomery agreed that after the fight he encountered an older, white-bearded man outside, who said he was the father of one of the accused, and threatened to sue the hotel because he blamed the hotel’s inaction for causing the brawl.

Defence counsel Alan Hensley, for Mr Blazely, suggested to Mr Montgomery that Mr Brown had been refused service at the hotel earlier in the day for excessive intoxication and the witness said he had been unaware of that.

The trial before Justice Robert Pearce continues.