Tara Murray
New Caroline Springs coach Brian Lake had always planned on stepping into a senior coaching role, it just came sooner than expected.
Having called the Lakers home since finishing his AFL career, Lake has always given back to the club how he could.
With Brodie Holland leaving the Lakers late in the piece after getting the senior role at the Northern Bullants, the club turned to Lake to take over.
He had no hesitation in putting his hand up to take the role at the Western Region Football League division 1 club.
“It was going to happen, but it was 12 months earlier than expected,” he said. “I still wanted to play next year.
“Pretty much I thought this year I would finish, but my body held up well and I played every game so I wanted to give it a crack.
“Brodie got the VFL job which is fantastic. With the late notice it was hard for the club to find someone else, so it just worked for both of us.
“There was no hesitation.”
Lake, who still plans to play in some capacity next year, said it had been a busy few since his appointment getting everything organised for the pre-season and next year.
He said with the core group from this year returning there was already a good base in place for the group to move forward.
Lake takes over coaching a side that won the minor premiership, before exiting the finals in straight sets.
“We exceeded expectations by finishing the regular season with a 17-1 record,” he said.
“We set goals along the way and one of those goals was to play finals, which was the case.
“We wanted to push for the top three. For the first time in the club’s history we finished on top. When we won in 2016 we weren’t able to achieve that.”
Lake said with plenty of youth in the side they were expecting to see plenty of growth from the existing playing group.
There were six or seven 19 to 20 year olds part of their squad and keen to push even further.
Lake said finals would be the expectation for the group next season.
The club has announced the signing of Cooper Pepi, who crosses from St Albans, with Lake saying more announcements will come in the next few weeks.
Lake said they believed they would have a stronger side than last season.
“We’ll have the natural development of the group,” he said. “We’ve got the guys who were in the reserves, who played in the preliminary final, pushing for spots too.
“Someone like Will Young will be like a new recruit. He’s had a shoulder issue the last couple of years and finally hard surgery.
“He had played some good games, but his shoulder kept popping out. He helps our forward line and provides good experience for our young guys.”
The Lakers will train until next week, before a break over the Christmas break. Lake said there was plenty of motivation in the group.
“We wanted to get one more session in before the break,” he said.
“With a young group we want to get them into good habits. We’ve got a few training with Brodie to get on a VFL list and the under-18s training with us too.
“There’s a lot of self motivation in the group.”
