Rebounding Richmond backman Bachar Houli has provided an interesting insight into the value of the Tigers’ fleet of young, small forwards from a defender’s perspective.

Houli is loving the forward-half pressure that’s being applied with such intensity by the Tiger cubs, and the resultant reduction of pressure on the team’s back half.

Bid on Bachar's match-worn Dreamtime guernsey from Saturday night's win

A key factor in Richmond’s win against Essendon in last Saturday night’s ‘Dreamtime at the G’ match, was the highly-impressive number of 52 turnovers created by its forwards.

“It’s so crucial that statistic (forward-half pressure). I guess we lacked that last year . . . there wasn’t enough tackles and forward-half pressure,” Houli told Triple M.

“This year the tide has turned a little bit with the inclusion of (Jason) Castagna and (Dan) Butler, and obviously (Daniel) Rioli’s doing his bit as well. And even big Jack’s (Riewoldt) contributing in that specific area . . .

“It just makes it so much easier and more predictable for us backs . . .

“We can get our set-ups nice and early and strong.”