LAST YEAR’s premiership win has done little to cure Hawthorn full back Brian Lake’s hunger for success.
Lake, who crossed from the Bulldogs to the Hawks to chase that elusive premiership at the end of 2012 has played in just one Grand Final – last year’s win over Fremantle – but played in four Preliminary Finals.
Three times he failed to win through to the last Saturday in September with his old club, and that disappointment is yet to be extinguished despite winning a flag with the Hawks in his first season.
On the eve of his fifth Preliminary Final appearance on Saturday against Port Adelaide at the MCG, Lake says he’s just as hungry to win his way into his second Grand Final.
“At three quarter time I thought I was the bad luck charm, zero from three and we were 20-odd points down at three quarter time,” he told hawthornfc.com.au
“But in comes Shaun Burgoyne with a massive last quarter against Geelong last year.
“So I’m one from four, hopefully I can make it two from five this year.”
After playing 21 of a possible 25 games last year, Lake has managed just nine in 2014 through a mixture of injury and suspension.
He returned to the side in Round 21 after five weeks out with suspension and a bye and has reminded everyone why he’s such an important player to Hawthorn.
In that time he’s restricted Tom Hawkins to four goals in two matches and faces another test against Port Adelaide’s Jay Schulz on Saturday.
Lake says his focus won’t solely be on the spearhead but rather also on assisting his defensive teammates to stop the likes of Robbie Gray, Chad Wingard, Angus Monfries and Jake Nead who are equally as dangerous.
He says the Hawks have the ability through the versatility of Josh Gibson, Ben Stratton and Shaun Burgoyne to stop their dangerous mosquito-fleet.
“We are flexible and we play on different guys, it’s more about our structure and what we want to get,” he said.
“Robbie Gray is a very dangerous player so we’ve obviously got to keep a very close eye on him, Wingard likes to get up the ground a little bit more, so we’ve worked out what they want and we’ve got to find the right match-ups.
“But we’re definitely more focused on what we want to do as a defence before what they want to do - we don’t want to be dictated to.”
Having played just nine matches this season after 21 of a possible 25 last year, Lake is feeling as fresh as he ever has coming into Preliminary Final weekend.
While injury and suspensions have caused frustrations for him throughout the year, including the four-week layoff between rounds 17 and 20, he can now see the bright side.
“I haven’t played too many games so I’ve got to take the positives from that - I’m very fresh,” he said.
“I probably didn’t need the week off but I’ll take it at this time of the year.
“I’m excited just to be out there finally and putting some games together and there’s nothing better than at the MCG against an opposition that doesn’t play at the ground too often.”
