23 Matthew Leuenberger

Choose another player Adcock, Jed - [7] Banfield, Todd - [18] Bartlett, Callum - [13] Beams, Claye - [17] Bewick, Rohan - [43] Black, Simon - [20] Brown, Jonathan - [16] Buchanan, Amon - [33] Cornelius, Aaron - [44] Docherty, Sam - [1] Drummond, Josh - [39] Golby, Mitchell - [41] Green, Joshua - [6] Hanley, Pearce - [11] Harwood, Ryan - [2] Hawksley, James - [12] Hudson, Ben - [22] Karnezis, Patrick - [28] Lester, Ryan - [35] Leuenberger, Matthew - [23] Lisle, Jordan - [19] Longer, Billy - [5] Maguire, Matt - [36] McGrath, Ashley - [9] Merrett, Daniel - [21] O'Brien, Jesse - [34] Patfull, Joel - [24] Polec, Jared - [4] Polkinghorne, James - [31] Raines, Andrew - [29] Redden, Jack - [30] Retzlaff, Bryce - [8] Rich, Daniel - [10] Rockliff, Tom - [38] Sheldon, Sam - [3] Staker, Brent - [14] Stiller, Cheynee - [32] Wearden, Patrick - [37] Yeo, Elliot - [26] Zorko, Dayne - [15]

Introduction
Having completed his senior AFL apprenticeship, Matthew Leuenberger has emerged as one of the most exciting ruckmen in the competition. At 204cm, he can cover ground quickly, win plenty of the ball and occasionally push forward to kick goals. 

Background
• Matthew Leuenberger’s father migrated from Switzerland back in 1986 and settled in Perth. He opened a French restaurant – located only a drop punt from Subiaco Oval – and often took his son (Matthew) to watch visiting AFL teams train.

• For Matthew Leuenberger, athletics and basketball were a big part of his junior sporting repertoire. However, he decided to focus on a football career because the AFL seemed more appealing than the NBL.

• He was initially spotted while playing for Hale School in Year 11 and was invited to train with the U18 West Australian side.

• He was later included in the East Perth Colts side and played six senior WAFL games after the U18 national championships where he had a carnival-high 61 hit outs.

• He won the Mel Whinnen medal as best-on-ground in the Colts’ Grand Final before impressive further with his speed and mobility at the Draft Camp in Canberra.

• After much hype, Leuenberger was drafted to the Lions with Pick No.4 in the 2006 AFL National Draft.

2007
• Leuenberger battled injury throughout much of his first AFL pre-season and was forced to miss the entire NAB Cup competition.

• He eventually returned to the field for the Lions Reserves side where he began dominating matches playing a mixture of roles both in the ruck and up forward.

• He earned a senior call-up for the Lions’ Round 14 clash against West Coast in the familiar surrounds of Subiaco. Opposed to arguably the AFL’s premiere ruckman Dean Cox, Leuenberger battled manfully as the Lions secured an upset win over the reigning premiers.

• Leuenberger held his spot in the senior team as Jamie Charman’s back-up for the remaining nine matches – an amazing feat for a developing teenage ruckman.

• The finest performance of his debut season came in Round 20 against Sydney at the Gabba. With Charman out injured, Leuenberger went head-to-head with experienced Sydney ruck duo Darren Jolly and Peter Everitt and took the honours in a thrilling draw. He was desperately unlucky not to receive an AFL Rising Star nomination for his 15 disposal effort.

2008
• Following the trading of Cameron Wood to Collingwood and the shock retirement of premiership ruckman Beau McDonald during the off-season, Leuenberger quickly became an important part of the Lions team.

• He began the season in the seniors and once again stood up when senior ruckman Jamie Charman missed through injury against Port Adelaide in Round 4.

• He was the youngest player selected in the AFL’s 150-year Hall of Fame Tribute Match’s initial squad. However, he was not chosen in the final All-Stars team.

• He was later relegated to the Lions Reserves when the Club chose to play key forward Mitch Clark in the ruck.

• He returned to the senior team only to injure his knee against Essendon at Telstra Dome in Round 15. The injury required surgery which forced the young ruckman to miss the reminder of the season.

• Leuenberger’s 10 senior matches in 2008 took his career total to 19.

2008
• After a full pre-season which saw Leuenberger add considerable size to his 204cm frame, the West Australian began the 2009 home-and-away season as the team's number one ruck option. 

• He played three matches before tearing the lateral meniscus in his knee which required surgery and approximately three months on the sidelines.

• Further complications arose when Leuenberger suffered a post-operation staph infection which made him incredibly ill and delayed his recovery.

• After losing more than 10kg because of the infection, Leuenberger returned to Brisbane and commenced his recovery. Despite being considered unlikely to return in 2009, he remained committed to making it back in time for the AFL Finals.

• He remarkably returned to the Lions Reserves late in the season but after two match hit-outs in the Reserves, his knee did not respond ideally. He therefore was not considered for the Lions' Finals campaign.

2010
• In Leuenbeger’s fourth season with the Lions, he stepped up to become the Lions’ top ruckman in the absence of the injured Jamie Charman.

• He was one of the few players to play all 22 games in 2010 – a remarkable effort from the young West Australian whose knee injury restricted him to just 3 games in 2009.

• He proved to be a skilful, consistent and agile member of the side, and throughout the season had 2 goals, 330 disposals, 52 tackles and a team-high 461 hitouts.

• Leuenberger finished the year in the top ten in the Club Champion Awards with 24 votes.

2011
• After a solid pre-season, Leuenberger maintained his status as the Club's number one ruckman and shouldered much of the workload in the absence of injured team-mate Jamie Charman.

• But when the Lions lost key forwards Jonathan Brown and Brent Staker in Round 1, Leuenberger was trialled at full-forward. Desite showing promise, he finished with just two goals and five behinds from three matches playing in attack.

• He returned to the primary ruck role in Round 7 and amassed a remarkable 52 hitouts against Gold Coast SUNS in QClash 1. It was the fifth most hitouts achieved by any player in a single game since Champion Data started compiling statistics.

• He started to establish himself as one of the competition's elite ruckmen with regular standout performances. One of his finest was in QClash 2 when he collected 19 disposals, had 42 hitouts and kicked two goals in a rare Lions win. He was considered unlucky to be overlooked for the Marcus Ashcroft Medal as the best afield.  

• He also picked up a career-high 24 disposals in Round 22 against Collingwood at the MCG - monstering reigning Premiership ruckman Darren Jolly in the process.

• By season's end, he had played all 22 senior matches (one of only five players at the Club to do so), and finished fourth across the entire competition in total hitouts - behind North Melbourne's Todd Goldstein.

• He was considered a legitimate contender to be named in the 2011 All Australian squad, but eventually missed out behind Goldstein and West Coast's Dean Cox.

• His breakthrough season culminated in him finishing a personal-best 6th in the Merrett-Murray Medal vote count. He also averaged a career-high 15.5 disposals per game. 

• In another strong message towards the Club's bright future, Leuenberger extended his contract with the Lions to effectively eliminate any chance of him being immediately poached by new AFL franchise GWS.