Gold Coast coach David Lake recalls Hampden league days

He was born in Warrnambool on May 18, 1964, and is married to wife Natalie.

Lake has five children - Rory, Josh, Sam, Jack and Eliza. He is the son of Ken and Margaret and has three siblings - Mark, Phil and Tracey.

He went to Camperdown Primary School and Camperdown High School.

David, you've just been appointed as the inaugural coach of the Gold Coast AFLW side. I suppose you would be wishing that the new footy season would start within the next few weeks?

Yes, I'm really excited and I wish the season would start soon.

The Gold Coast Suns join West Coast, St Kilda and Richmond as having new sides in the women's competition for next year.

We've already started working on our list and preparing to recruit players for the new side.

I've had meetings with Stewie Dew and Mark Evans and a couple of other senior people at the club.

There's a wonderful feeling at the club.

Women's footy has really taken off as was seen by the huge crowd at the AFLW grand final in Adelaide.

It's amazing how many girls in Queensland have shown an interest in playing footy. The sport has grown rapidly over the last couple of years and I expect that growth will continue into the future.

I've got a two year contract to coach the Gold Coast Suns women's side.

And I'm quietly confident that the club will be competitive in a very tough competition within the next two years.

Let's go back to your sporting highlight of playing in Fitzroy's under 19 premiership side in 1982. What are your memories of that game?

Doug Searle was our coach. The game was at the MCG. It was exciting to play in a premiership side on the famous ground.

We won the game by 11 points and I was lucky enough to kick two goals and was selected as one of the best players on the ground.

I'm still mates with many of my teammates who played in the premiership side.

Where did your footy career begin?

My grandfather Perc played in the 1937 and 1939 premiership sides with Warrnambool.

He was one of five brothers to represent Warrnambool, so I suppose that's how far back my links go with footy.

We grew up in Camperdown. My dad was a rate collector for the local council.

I started off playing in the under 14s and 16s before playing in the under 18 side.

I was 16 years old when I made my senior debut with Camperdown.

Neil Stewart was the senior coach of Camperdown at the time.

My first senior game was against Colac in 1981. I can still remember playing against Terang's Richard Wearmouth in one of my early games with Camperdown.

Richard was ranked as a very talented player back in that era.

Pat Sinnott was one of the legends at Camperdown and to play in the same side as him was a real highlight.

Pat's brothers Bernie, Mark and Chris also played for the Pies back then.

Camperdown was in Fitzroy's zone, so I went down to play with the under 19s in 1982.

How many years did you play with Fitzroy?

I played in the reserves and under 19s in 1983 and thought I may be picked in the senior side st some stage, but I was told at the end of the 1983 season I was not wanted.

I was pretty disappointed when I was told.

I was lucky enough that I could concentrate on work and ended up playing footy with East Ringwood.

David, often blokes from the country would get homesick when they went to Melbourne. Were you one of those?

I might have been homesick for a day or two but mum straightened me out.

I had trained with Fitzroy for a few occasions and I put through a phone call to mum.

She politely told me in the conversation that she had sold my bed.

It was a bit of tough love and I just had to get on with it.

Where has your footy journey taken you?

I've played and been connected with a few various clubs in different states and also Papua New Guinea and loved each minute of my involvement in footy.

It's been a long and winding road but an enjoyable one.

I had a stint up in Darwin and played for St Marys when the great Michael Long made his senior debut with the club.

I also went over to work in Perth as a sales representative role and got involved with footy over there.

I played for Morningside before coming back to East Ringwood.

I coached Mt Gravatt for six years and took them to a premiership in the state league competition in 2007 and ended up taking Morningside to a senior flag in 2014.

I was an assistant coach to Craig Starcevich for the inaugural Brisbane AFL Women's side in 2017.

We lost the grand final in 2017 and 2018.

I found coaching women was great, as the women wanted to sit down and listen to all the information that they could get.

I thought my days of coaching were over.

But out of the blue, Gold Coast got in contact with me to ask if I would come in for an interview for the inaugural Gold Coast women's side.

I had two interviews and after one of the interviews going for nearly 10 hours, I put my hand up for the job.

It's a challenging job but I'm looking forward to the challenges.

Do you still follow the fortunes of Camperdown and stay in contact with any of the locals?

Yes, I always look up Camperdown's scores and what is happening in the Hampden League through The Standard's website.

My mum Margaret lives at Derrinallum and I've got relations including Peter Conheady down at Camperdown.

He keeps me informed of a lot of footy news from the area.