Goals may turn Brian Lake around

Jay Clark From: Sunday Herald Sun June 05, 2011 12:00am

RODNEY Eade has likened Brian Lake's confidence in his body to that of a player coming back from a knee reconstruction.

The Western Bulldogs coach believes his desperately out-of-form backman was "at the crossroads" at the last change of their 61-point drubbing from Geelong.

But three goals from the defender in the last quarter could save him from the axe that Eade bluntly warned was certain to fall on some other senior players.

"We've got to do what's best for the team short term, but certainly long term as well," Eade said.

"Some players who have been here a while just aren't putting their hand up, so we've got to turf them out and find people who are."

While Eade said he hadn't given up on this year's lofty ambitions, at 3-7 he suggested the club's season was riding on the outcome of Friday night's clash against St Kilda.

"Next week is probably the crunch as much as anything," Eade said. "But we'll keep blooding kids, even if it's the crunch game or turning point or whatever you want to call it. We've had six debutantes now, we'll play some more."

Josh Hill, Jarryd Grant, who was subbed off with a rib injury, and Brisbane recruit Justin Sherman are all likely to be in the gun.

Adam Cooney and Tom Liberatore are set to return from injury to bolster the side, while Eade hopes a late spark from Lake yesterday was a turning point for the All-Australian.

Lake looked slow to move and was comprehensively outpointed by Geelong's big men early, before salvaging some respect with a few strong grabs late in attack.

The star backman has battled for fitness after shoulder, knee and hip procedures in the off-season.

But Eade said Lake's demons were between his ears.

"At three-quarter time, he was probably at the crossroads a bit, wasn't he?" Eade said.

"We moved him forward because he was poor down back. But I think it is as much a mental issue as it is anything else with Brian.

"I just don't think he's got confidence in his knee.

"It's like a player coming back from a knee reconstruction, they're apprehensive until they get that first big whack on it.

"You can see at times when he's going for marks and contests in the square where normally he'd just attack it and go for it.

"But he was so worried about his opponent and making sure he didn't get in front.

"That last quarter he did OK. "Whether that's a turning point for him?"

Eade believes skill errors and a lack of effort was what cost the Dogs in a poor 40-minute patch in the second and third terms against the Cats.

"I don't think we worked hard enough at times," he said.

"But we used the ball a lot better at the end and that's how that ball use as much as effort is going to hurt you.

"But we didn't get an even contribution and there were a lot of players that were down."

I'd be disappointed if Shermanator was dropped, I think he's not been bad this year. Didn't do much today, but was hardly Robinson Crusoe there. IMO his run and endeavour have been good.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndrewP6

I'd be disappointed if Shermanator was dropped, I think he's not been bad this year. Didn't do much today, but was hardly Robinson Crusoe there. IMO his run and endeavour have been good.

---

I think he has been just an average performer in fact slightly below average but there are others being more inconsistent.
Hard to see what else Eade can do with Hill and Grant who who both earned recalls after one OK performance at the VFL. As I mentioned in the Williamstown vs Casey thread, despite Grant kicking 4 goals it wasn't a good performance especially with intensity and that seemed to follow into yesterdays game.

Back to the thread title, I would stick with Lake being played as a forward and move Williams back to defense.

I can see the team being all over the shop from now on.Do we elevate Barlow and Dahlhaus and Panos .
We can elevate 2 one for Tom Hill and automatic after RND 11 if Barry Hall retires early they could put him on the long term injury list . We need to play all the kids to see if they can cut it Mulligan had a tough first game but looks a good size and Howard looks very good i thought we might have wasted that pick getting him to early but the kid has speed and good kicking skills .

Sherman would be 10 times better with a more consistent dogs team, if we played how we did the past couple of years sherminator would be a gun n fit right into the team.. Lake should start forward next game then move to the backline see how he goes, Howard is quick and will be alot better in a few more rounds same as dalhouse is very quick. Jones has a lot more to offer. If lake can lift I believe will help lift others around aswell. Going to the saints game this Friday hoping lake kicks 5 up until half time :)

Any chance Lake could have a Lynch-esque end to career in the opposite goal square?

There would seem to me to be three ways we can go with Brian.

The first way is to play him forward in the hope he can find some form. This may work as Brian is a confidence player and kicking goals is one of the best ways to build his confidence. With Barry out we need a strong body in attack to support our small forwards and the developing Jones and based on the last quarter our players will actually kick it to him on the lead. The danger is that he has never had to cope with being a key forward target for a whole match, if he gets the best defender and is double teamed will he be able to keep working through it, or will he go into his shell?

The second way might be to set him a three-four week intensive training block. I would love to see a program put together deisgined to rebuild his confidence in his strength, his pace off the mark and his lateral movement. Have him hit the gym with Hall, do run through's with Morris, practise contested play with Williams, Hall, Morris and Will.

At the end of the training block set him the challenge of dominating a game at Williamstown starting at full back and taking contested marks on his opponent and ending at full forward and kicking goals. If he does not ahceive that, he does not get back in the side unitil he does.

The third way, the way I hope we do not go, is to drop him back to Williamstown and wait for him to get better on his own. While this might work with some plalyers, nothing of his performances there so far would indicate he will be able to find form and motivation himself. In fact at the lower level I would be worried he may simply stagnate and go backwards.

This is a tricky one, with two years at high pay left on his contract we need to get Brian playing well again. More then that however we need to provide a framework for him to get back the respect and confidence of his teammates and his own confidence. Also with Hall more then likely in his last year, developing Lake's flexibility as a forward may help provide support to Jones and Grant as they continue to develop. Grant will never be a big man and Jones will take at least another year or two to bulk up enough to be a true power forward.

The complication is the impact on season 2011, what is best for the team now compared to long term. So far this year we have sent out mixed message in terms of selection and player management. Cooney, Hall, Lake, Wood Higgins and Hargrave were all arguably brought back too quickly from injury indicating a focus on the here and now, not the future. I think the club needs to develop the maturity to do what is right for the player and accept the copnsequences even if it is not right for the team in any given week.

For Brian I would play him forward against the Saints, if it works and he kicks goals then we stick with option one and play him into form, if not then the season is gone and we may as well set up option two as the best way to recover a player who provides for our needs in the future.

Lake definately needs to play FF this week.

We need some size there to help Jones and Hall is injured, Williams can't play forward and Grant won't be in the side.

Let him attack the ball without worrying about giving away goals and because he'll be playing on Zac Dawson he should be back to full confidence by 1/4 time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sockeye Salmon

Let him attack the ball without worrying about giving away goals and because he'll be playing on Zac Dawson he should be back to full confidence by 1/4 time.

---

Then he can move onto Jones and Liam can get a rising star nomination!

Ricky Olarenshaw was on SEN this morning and was quizzed on Lake (who he manages). Andy Maher asked Rick whether Lake's issues were, "Form related, Injury related or is he having some issues with the coach". Rick's reply was that it was probably a 'combo of all three'.

Interesting that he would acknowledge publicly that there is an issue between Lake and Rocket - even if he is just saying its one part of a few issues. He was also far from convincing about Lake wanting to stay at the club - only offering 'its far too early to be talking about next season and whether a player would want to be traded' and 'players like to stay at the club they are at' wasn't with overwhelming conviction.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ozza

Ricky Olarenshaw was on SEN this morning and was quizzed on Lake (who he manages). Andy Maher asked Rick whether Lake's issues were, "Form related, Injury related or is he having some issues with the coach". Rick's reply was that it was probably a 'combo of all three'.

Interesting that he would acknowledge publicly that there is an issue between Lake and Rocket - even if he is just saying its one part of a few issues. He was also far from convincing about Lake wanting to stay at the club - only offering 'its far too early to be talking about next season and whether a player would want to be traded' and 'players like to stay at the club they are at' wasn't with overwhelming conviction.

---

Click on the link below:

Doubts over Lake future

lake ff even if its for half a game then drop him back when he has had some confidence injected into him