UP-AND-COMING big man Matthew Leuenberger hopes it will be acase of fourth time lucky as he presses on with the second pre-season of hisyoung AFL career.

The 19-year-old burst onto the scene in the second half of the 2007 campaign,debuting against West Coast in round 14 and then playing nine straight games toround out the season.

But Leuenberger’s promise-laden and composed performances - including a lonehand against Sydneymonsters Peter Everitt and Darren Jolly for much of the round 20 clash at theGabba – belied the fact that he hasn’t been able to complete a pre-season forthree years.

“A few years ago I had glandular fever which kept me out fora while, then I had osteitis pubis the next year and then last year I hadosteitis pubis again,” Leuenberger explained.

“Getting through a full pre-season is my main goal at the moment.

“I’ve been doing a lot of weights, so I can put on a bit ofbulk, but I’ve also been doing pilates.

“The reason I’d broken down with the osteitis pubis a couple of times wasbecause I wasn’t strong enough in certain areas and the pilates works on thosemuscles.”

At 203cm and 93kg, Leuenberger wasn’t exactly a beanpole when he arrived at theGabba.

But time spent wrestling with the likes of Everitt, Jolly, Dean Cox and BradOttens has convinced him that a few extra kilograms would be highly beneficial.

“When I got to the club I was 93kg and I’m now about 97kg,” he said.

“Ideally, I’d probably like to be getting to around 102kg – I don’t want to gettoo heavy because that would probably cause issues with the rest of my body.

“Coming up against those guys really opened my eyes up. Pretty much in everygame I played I ended up with someone bigger and stronger than me, as well asbeing more experienced.

“It’s motivated me to get bigger and fitter so that I can becompetitive against those guys and beat them.”

The experience of being an AFL player and watching finals football ontelevision has equipped Leuenberger with some additional motivation – thedesire to experience September action himself.

While there are plenty of sessions at the Lions’ summer base at Coorparoobetween now and the start of the 2008 season, the potentially important natureof the Lions’ opening two fixtures for those finals aspirations hasn’t beenlost on the playing group.

The Lions will head to Leuenberger’s home town of Perth to play West Coast in round one, thenjet back across the country for a Friday night showdown at the Gabba withCollingwood six days later.

“West Coast at Subiaco is always tough and those first twogames are going to be very important for us,” Leuenberger said.

“The second half of last year we started playing some reallygood football and that helped us build a lot more confidence in each other’sability.

“Now we’re looking to take that confidence forward into thisseason.”