DOB: 23 August 1949
Debut: Round 12, 1968 against Fitzroy at Princes Park
Last MFC Game: Round 2, 1972 against Footscray at MCG
From: West Broken Hill
Number: 39 (1968), 9 (1969-1972)
Honours
Reserves Premiership Player - 1970
Games: 49 (55 total)
Goals: 20 (22 total)
Career Statistics
| Wins | Draws | Losses | Winning % |
| 15 | 1 | 33 | 30.61 |
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 SANFL 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 Carlton. 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.
| Year | Games | Goals | Brownlow |
| 1968 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| 1969 | 15 | 13 | 1 |
| 1970 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| 1971 | 13 | 2 | 0 |
| 1972 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
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