LEIGH Matthews concedes the Brisbane Lions are behind the eight-ball in their preparation for the season proper, but says there is definitely light at the end of tunnel.

The Lions lost their third pre-season game in succession on Friday night at Carrara, going down to Geelong by 40 points despite a bright start.

Post-match, Matthews said his side was yet to hit its straps but remained positive that improvement was not far away, following an occasionally weather-interrupted pre-season.

“The first quarter we played our best quarter (of the pre-season) – the first quarter we played really well,” he said.

“We’d want to play much better than we have (going into the season). We haven’t been able to get a level that we want.

“But we’re a bit late in our preparation. We played a bunch of kids last week – tonight we had a team our there but a lot of them have only just started to get going, so we have a lot of upside we think.

“Jonathan Brown and Simon Black and Joel Macdonald looked better late in the game than early and that’s probably logical.”

After Brown, Black and Macdonald returned for their first games of 2008 against the Cats, Matthews looks forward to welcoming back full-back Daniel Merrett this week for the final outing of the pre-season.

The burly custodian has been sidelined by minor knee surgery.

“He (Merrett) will play next week,” Matthews said.

“At the moment he’s been out and also Jason Roe, who has been one of our other pretty good big defenders. Scotty Clouston has played couple of games, but he’s still a rookie.

“Daniel will slot back in to defence really well – he trained well during the week so he’s right to go.”

The Lions escaped the Cats clash injury-free, although Jared Brennan, who copped a knock to the leg, sat out the last quarter as a precaution.