Caroline Springs is supremely confident three-time Hawthorn premiership player Brian Lake will play for the club next year.
The 2013 Norm Smith medallist announced his retirement from the AFL last week, days after the Hawks demolished West Coast in the grand final.
Lake, who lives a short walk from the Caroline Springs ground, said at his retirement press conference: “I’ll be playing local football somewhere next year, most likely Caroline Springs.”
All that’s left is for player and club to work out final contract arrangements.
Lakers football manager Marc Raak said Lake’s future work commitments would dictate how many games he could play for the club.
“He will have a lot of offers, but we’re comfortable with how it’s going at the moment,” Raak said.
“He has been a part of our football club for many years. We’re confident we will come to an arrangement that will see Brian playing some form of football for us next year.
“How many games, I don’t know but he wants to play and we want him to play.”
While he is yet to play a game for the club, Lake has already made his presence felt at Caroline Springs.
He won the club’s ‘person of the year’ award this season and was also on the panel that selected incoming coach Scott Korczynski.
Lake’s recruitment would be a huge boost for Caroline Springs, which finished fifth in the Western Region Football League’s division 2 this year.
The club is hoping to contend for a premiership in 2016 and has already started the ball rolling with other recruits.
Raak and Korczynski will speak to about 15 possible players in the next two weeks.
“We have had our list management meeting,” Raak said.
“We’re now at the stage where we have a list of players we want to sit down with over the next two weeks and see if they want to come to Caroline Springs Football Club.
“We’ve made it clear we want to get deep into the finals.
“If things go our way and we have a fit and healthy list, we want to win the grand final and go to division 1.”
