After playing 197 games for the Western Bulldogs, the veteran defender was traded to the Hawks last October, and his former teammates were looking forward to taking him on for the first time when the club's meet at Etihad Stadium on Friday.
Fronting a press conference on Monday, Bulldog forward Luke Dahlhaus was enthusiastic about facing Lake.
"There'll be plenty of banter," he predicted during a school visit in Melbourne's western suburbs on Monday afternoon.
"I think, as you probably know, Brian has got a bit of banter about him, so he'll probably be saying a few things.
"But we'll try and just focus on the footy."
Both the Bulldogs players and the club's fans will take some time to adjust to the sight of Lake in a Hawthorn jumper.
"I guess for the older fellas it will probably be a bit more strange," Dahlhaus said.
"I only played with him for two years, but it will be a bit different.
"Watching him on Saturday night [when the Hawks played Gold Coast and Brisbane] in different colours was a bit weird.
The Bulldogs received pick 21 in last year's NAB AFL Draft as part of the deal that took Lake to Hawthorn.
They used that selection to secure highly rated midfielder Nathan Hrovat.
"(Brian) thinks he did the right thing and we got a few good kids out of it, so I guess both parties are pretty happy," Dahlhaus said.
When it comes to thinking about Friday night's game, Dahlhaus is confident that the Bulldogs, who lost to Essendon and Collingwood in round one of the NAB Cup, will be better for the run.
"The first week was just a bit of a warm-up," he said. "At least now we can study just one team and get ready to play against them.
"So we're going to go out there and try win and hopefully we do."
Brian Lake is a defender in AFL Fantasy. He averaged 76 points in 2012. Register your team at our AFL Fantasy hub.
