George Lakes | Demonwiki (original) (raw)

DOB: 23 August <1949>

Debut: Round 12, 1968 against at Princes Park
Last MFC Game: Round 2, 1972 against at

From: West Broken Hill

Number: 39 (1968), 9 (1969-1972)

Honours
Premiership Player - <1970>

Games: 49 (55 total)
Goals: 20 (22 total)
Career Statistics

In <1963>, Lakes was named the best player at the Australian school championships at 13-years-old, and a year later was being pursued by eight of 10 clubs. A year later, four VFL teams joined the chase, but despite large signing bonuses on offer, his father wouldn't let Lakes leave Broken Hill until he'd finished school. Once he was allowed to go, Lakes chose to move to Victoria, where he was close to his cousin Vasil Varlamos of . Secretary Jim Cardwell signed Lakes at the end of <1967>, declaring him the best footballer of his age in the country. Melbourne got their man for a reported $7000 and the promise of playing a practice match against the Broken Hill league during <1968>. Cardwell scoffed at the figure but suggested that whatever the club had paid they'd gotten a bargain.

Even after his club and the Broken Hill League cleared Lakes, the South Australian league didn't release him until Melbourne had put in five applications and one appeal. It was reportedly the first successful appeal to the league, and he was finally allowed to go in <1968>. Lakes soon made the senior side, playing nine games until the end of the year. He played a further 15 matches in <1969> despite a rocky year in which he had to have cartilage removed from his knee and was spat at by a spectator while being carried off on a stretcher in the Round 15 match against Essendon at Windy Hill.

Unable to cement a permanent spot in the team over the next two years he played 10 games in <1970> after recovering from a knee operation and another 13 in <1971> before being given a clearance to South Melbourne midway through <1972> after having played just two games for the year. He played six straight matches for the Swans between rounds 12 and 17 before dropping out of the side and then out of league football at the end of the year. Lakes later worked in sports medicine.

Originally of the Theodoroulakes family, Lakes' father - a first generation migrant to Australia - changed his family's name after moving to Australia. Carlton defender Vasil Varlamos was his cousin.

Lists
Interstate recruits
South Melbourne

Media
Age - 13/12/1967, 19/04/1968, 13/05/1968, 29/06/1968, 30/04/1969, 23/04/1970, 14/06/1972
Herald - 1968

Links
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Wikipedia profile