NORTHMelbourne youngster Lachlan Hansen is under no illusions about what he needs towork on over the pre-season.

Eversince arriving at Arden St as the club's first pick (No.3 overall) in the 2006"super draft", the slightly-built Hansen knew he would have to focuson adding bulk to his 197cm frame for at least his first couple of pre-seasons.

Whilehis body is still very much a work in progress, Hansen has delighted hiscoaches by tipping the scales close to 94kgs in the week prior to Christmas, afair result given he dropped on the club's doorstep at a tick over 88kgs alittle more than 12 months earlier.

Justas encouraging is the fact that Hansen has lost none of his renowned aerobiccapacity, with the 19-year-old regularly finishing in the first couple ofrunners in the Roos' regular Princes Park trials. It's a balance Hansen is keento maintain.

"I'veput on a few kilos so I'm rapt with that," Hansen says. "I also justfeel a lot stronger because I'm pushing a lot more weight than I did when Ifirst came down to the club.

"I'malso pretty happy with how I've handled that extra weight so far. My endurancehas always been a big strength of my game and I'd be disappointed if that wasto suffer as I got bigger but so far, looking at my times around Princes Park,I think we're managing that pretty well."

Assistantcoach Darren Crocker agrees that the club's conditioning staff needs to keep aclose eye on how Hansen's changing body shape affects his ability to cover theground on match day.

Butat the same time, he acknowledges the need for the Roos' brightest key positionprospect to continue to beef up if he is to match it with the key position"gorillas" of the competition

"Physically,Lachie's probably not quite ready to play in a key position but we have to becareful that by developing his body strength-wise we aren't detracting from hisrunning ability," Crocker says.

"Ittakes a little while for a young bloke to firstly put on the weight and then tolearn how to carry that weight.

"Atthe moment his running capabilities are still terrific but he probably hasn'tput on as much weight as we'd like either.

"He'sstill got a little way to go but he's only in his second pre-season so that's understandable,but we just have to keep an eye on how he goes with us loading him up."

Aswell as spending many long hours on the gym, Hansen has used the pre-season toimprove his body work in contested situations by pitting himself against hismore experienced teammates in various training drills.

Ithas, at times, been a humbling experience to be pushed around by his moreseasoned colleagues, however Hansen is certain these sessions will hold him ingood stead going into his second AFL season.

"I'mreally working hard on a few things with my marking," he says.

"Beforethe main session starts I do a few marking drills with guys like NathanThompson and Drew Petrie to just help me with my marking in contestedsituations with the bigger guys like I’ll be doing in the real stuff.

"That'sbeen a big help to me and has helped me understand where I'm at and what I needto do strength-wise to compete with guys like that."

WhileHansen knows he still has a lot of work to do to regularly hold down a keyposition, he is hopeful he can play as many games as possible in the seniors in2008 in a bid to develop his game further.

Butmore than that, Hansen says his aims are to be part of a Melbourne-based teamgoing places over the next few seasons.

"Idon't care where I play if I'm in the ones, to be honest," he says."I feel more at home in the backline but I'll take a spot up forward ifit's in the seniors.

"Itwas only really this year that I started to play up forward consistently so Iwas really just getting used to playing up there as the year went on.

"Butas I said, I'll play anywhere in this team because I reckon we're starting tobuild a pretty good side.

"We'llbe around in Melbourne a long time so hopefully all the supporters who mighthave dropped off in the past come back and help us not just survive but becomeone of the big clubs here in Melbourne."