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FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018. -
Re: Following our ex's...................
Former footballer Brian Lake seeks help at mental health clinic after alleged rampage
Fallen former AFL star Brian Lake is seeking help at a mental health clinic after being charged over an alleged rampage.
The three-time premiership champion and Norm Smith medallist has been charged with seven offences.
Court records show a magistrate bailed the Hawthorn legend after he appeared before an out-of-session hearing late Monday.
Police issued a warrant for the 37-year-old’s arrest over the matters on February 12.
Lake is facing charges of aggravated burglary, criminal damage, stalking, unlawful assault and trespassing.
Police confirmed the incident occurred at a property in Aintree on February 17. He was arrested eight days later in Camberwell.
It is understood Lake voluntarily admitted himself to a Melbourne health facility following the incident.
Friends and family have rallied behind the fallen footy star.
Sources say there are fears for the ex-AFL great’s mental wellbeing and that he is struggling with the breakdown of his marriage.
His estranged wife has begun a new relationship.
Late last year, Lake travelled to Asia to seek treatment at a drug and alcohol facility.
“It’s pretty well known within footy that he is spiralling,” said a source.
“He’s in a hole … he’s been in rehab recently.
“He won the Norm Smith six years ago and his third flag four years ago. It’s a pretty decent fall since leaving the game.”
Lake is scheduled to return to the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on March 13 for the matters.
Existing charges of failure to answer bail, unlicensed driving and excess speeding will be heard on the same date.
Court documents show the Caroline Springs father of three is also scheduled to appear in court on June 19 for a matter being prosecuted by Avondale Heights police.
Lake has had a tumultuous past few months, including a stint in prison in Japan.
The reality TV star said he had hit “rock bottom” in July when he spent six days locked up in Osaka after a destructive booze bender. He was never charged with any offences.
Lake returned home from 49 days on Australian Survivor to the news his wife wanted a break.
He packed his bags and fled to Bali then Japan.
He said a phone argument with his estranged wife triggered a drunken brawl that landed him in a Japanese prison.
“It wasn’t agreed upon beforehand, but it was obviously thought about,” Lake said of their marriage breakdown.
“Then it didn’t really happen until probably a couple of days after I got back. She mentioned it’s probably best if we just had a break for a while.
“So, yeah, you just come off the island, off the game and then I think it was 48 hours, so that’s why I went to Bali straightaway.”
Months later he revealed he would go to drug and alcohol rehab after a photo emerged of him with a white substance lined up in a toilet cubicle.
“After recent conversations with those close to me I have come to the realisation that I need to seek professional help,” he said at the time.
“The decision has come in recent weeks after reflecting on some of the incidents that have taken place and I must accept that I need to improve my health.”
Lake took to Instagram on February 8 to post an image of his ex-wife and their three kids which was captioned: “Family is everything.”
Friends reached out with offers of support.
“I know you are having a hard time. Look after you first then everything may work out.”
Lake was drafted to the Western Bulldogs in 2001 and made his AFL debut the following year after being recruited from SANFL club Woodville West-Torrens.
He was then traded to Hawthorn, where he was part of the Hawks’ premiership three-peat from 2013 to 2015.
The talented fullback won the Norm Smith Medal in 2013, and was also named All-Australian in 2009 and 2010.
Lake’s lawyer has been contacted for comment.Comment
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Re: Following our ex's...................
Agg Burg!
*!*!*!*! me. That's a holy *!*!*!*!ing hell of a charge.
So aggravated burglary, criminal damage, stalking, unlawful assault and trespassing. Plus fail to answer bail, unlicensed driving and speeding. That's a bit of everything for one hearing. Lucky to get bail.Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023Comment
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Re: Following our ex's...................
Rumours were floating around on Monday about Lake getting done for trespass, this is one of those instances where reality ends up being worse than the rumour.
The guy's really off the rails.Western Bulldogs: 2016 PremiersComment
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FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.Comment
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Re: Following our ex's...................
Oh dear effin me!!!!
My heart goes out to him for how he must be feeling right now but in life you make your bed, you know the rest!!They've done studies you know, 60% of the time, it works every time!
Brian Fantana.Comment
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Re: Following our ex's...................
I hope he gets on back on track soon as he is obviously going through a very rough patch.Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"Comment
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Re: Following our ex's...................
That's my guess. Or another place where we wasn't meant to be. Just for colour, WD54 can do a more complete explanation, burglary is where you break into somewhere you shouldn't (a house, building etc), usually to steal property. A serious, but arguably lesser charge against the property. Agg Burglary is where you break into somewhere you shouldn't and there's other innocent people home/inside, usually to steal something or in the extreme to assault someone. A more serious, much more serious charge against the person. The other charges wouldn't bother a good QC too much, but the agg burg charge might pose a few problems for Brian. If he for instance kicked in the front door and then proceeded to undertake the unlawful assault upon someone else, then he's got troubles if that is even remotely close to being true, this is a guess though. We will soon see how severe the Agg Burg is, but the rest is bad, but not lose much sleep over bad from his lawyers viewpoint.Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023Comment
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Re: Following our ex's...................
This is a pretty good explanation.
Burglary is the act of entering, as a trespassers, a building, or part thereof, with the intent of stealing, assaulting or damaging property once inside.
The aggravated component comes in if at the time of said entering the accused:
was in possession of a firearm or other offensive weapon; or
There was a person present and the person ought to have known they were present or was reckless to the fact that they were present.
In either case if the Agg Burg proceeds it will do so in County Court. It can't be heard summarily.
If the stalking, crim damage and unlawful assault are all from the same incident he's looking at imprisonment.
If it's a family violence incident he is in a whole world of hurt, the courts are looking very dimly at Family Violence incidents and this is high end offending.Comment
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Re: Following our ex's...................
I just re-read the article. He's got an outstanding 'fail to appear on bail'. If he's still on said bail, and has a serious indictable offence (with other charges) committed on bail alleged at him by police, that's a very, very, very generous granting of bail. If he's on two sets of bail, he better not even think about trying for a third.Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023Comment
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Re: Following our ex's...................
Just finished reading the piece on Dahlhaus in the HUN - helps explain a lot. I am now at peace with him leaving and won’t be booing him when we play Geelong. All the best Luke.There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.
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Re: Following our ex's...................
Luke Dahlhaus opens up on his Western Bulldogs exit and why a move to Geelong was important
That trademark grin dances across Luke Dahlhaus’ face as he recalls his childhood days growing up in Leopold on Geelong’s outskirts.
During school holidays he and a mate would each buy minimum chips and a 1.25 litre bottle of Coca-Cola and then scoff the lot until they felt like they would throw up.
On Saturdays he would ride his bike to watch the Leopold Lions, eventually following in the footsteps of his dad and his brother, playing eight senior games at the club during his senior TAC Cup year.
“I felt like I was playing in front of 90,000 at the MCG,” Dahlhaus recalled this week.
The surf coast grommet, with his shock of dreadlocks, would later burst onto the AFL scene, forging a career at the Western Bulldogs that lasted eight years and reaped one extraordinary premiership.
Dahlhaus was his side’s terrier, a cheeky kid with an absolute will to get to the next contest to drag down an opponent.
But somewhere along the way, the fun of football vanished.
Call it the premiership hangover, if you want. Even accuse him of a lack of dedication and hunger, as former captain Bob Murphy famously did over the summer.
But that cheery demeanour masked an internal struggle, a battle with anxiety, that then collided with the pressures of his free agency status.
Dahlhaus sits in Geelong Football Club’s cafe two days before the JLT opener back in his happy place.
The new Cat is again content and settled, 20 minutes from the surf coast beaches and easing into the slower pace of the city.
He is aware some Dogs fans will wonder why he left a club just two years after that famous flag, but opening up for the first time about his struggles, he says moving to Geelong was about reinvigorating a career that was moving to some dark places.
“It just got to the point where I wasn’t enjoying it,” he told the Herald Sun.
“I had changed as a person. I wasn’t my bubbly self.
“I am a really happy up-and-about bloke who likes to muck around and have some fun but I lost that side of me.
“Footy sort of felt like life or death. If it was a bad game it just felt horrible and it sort of stayed there for a couple of days if not weeks.
“My form tumbled and I lost confidence not only in my footy but in life to be honest.
“Coming home to a familiar place, being back around my parents and brothers, and I got to hang out with my new niece. It was the sign I wanted to come home.”
Dahlhaus said that anxiety had manifested itself post-match and even in normal everyday situations.
“We had a club psych Lisa Stevens who was incredible for me. Gee, the amount of phone calls I had with her, she was excellent,” he said.
“I was getting anxious before team meetings and that kind of stuff. Just hanging out with mates and feeling anxious at times.
“There was plenty of support but I tried and tried and nothing was working.”
For Dahlhaus the intersecting issues of form and contract snowballed into a season from hell.
“Probably towards the end at the Bulldogs I was feeling like because I didn’t have a contract I was trying to impress too much, trying to do too much, I wanted to be the bloke who has it 30 (times) and kicks four.,” he said.
“(A contract year) is not fun. Being the age I was, I really saw myself as a very loyal guy.
“When the contract negotiations weren’t working it became a grind and that’s when my form dropped. It’s why I was happy with a longer contract because I could just play.”
As the season ticked slowly by the offers from rival clubs begun to roll in.
By then the Dogs’ band of out-of-contract stars was a weekly talking point as Jordan Roughead, Mitch Wallis and good mate Tom Liberatore considered their futures.
“Don’t get me wrong, I loved every single minute at the Dogs but it got to the point where I wanted to come back home,” he said.
“The (Cats’) offer had more security and I thought, ‘Why not?’.
“It wasn’t much difference with the money, just the four years and the Dogs had offered three years and I thought, ‘I would love to have a job guaranteed until I am 30’.
“I wasn’t happy with the way I was going mentally and the way I was playing I wasn’t sure I would honestly keep going past the three years, so I thought why not change and see how I go?”
Before he moved back to Geelong he holidayed in Portugal with Liberatore, hiring a BMW and driving from Lisbon to Portimao.
It was then that Dahlhaus took to Instagram and responded sarcastically to ex-captain Murphy’s home truths.
They have since hugged it out, Dahlhaus admitting he was not in the right frame of mind to deal with Murphy’s confronting criticism.
“Yeah, we are all good. That sort of showed me and proved to me the mental space I was in,” he said.
“I am not an aggressive person. And the way I reacted to that was s**thouse, to be honest. I was pretty disappointed with the way I reacted.
“I wasn’t happy with the comments, obviously. I see myself as someone who bloody gives their all no matter what, but it’s all good. All hugged out and we are mates again.”
Dahlhaus freely admits he made mistakes following the premiership year.
“I wasn’t mentally going too well and probably made a couple of bad decisions,” he said.
“And I own that 100 per cent … it’s behind me now.”
Dahlhaus is content to be home, regularly visiting his parents and brother in Anglesea and ensconced in west Geelong, near his old school St Joseph’s College.
Cats coach Chris Scott has told him not to worry about racking up big numbers and instead getting back to being a tackling machine.
He is also off Twitter, and mixing plenty of time at the beach with a spot of carpentry.
“Nothing against anyone, but I needed to go home and get happy again,’’ he says.
“Down here everyone just lets you do your thing. It’s just what I am used to.”Comment
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