The recall of promising, tall forward Liam McBean to Richmond’s side for Saturday night’s big ‘Dreamtime at the ‘G’ clash with Essendon is in line with the Tigers’ focus on youth this year.

Richmond has had six debutants this season – McBean (Round 7 v Collingwood), Kamdyn McIntosh (Round 1 v Carlton), Kane Lambert (Round 2 v Western Bulldogs), Nathan Drummond (Round 4 v Melbourne), Corey Ellis (Round 5 v Geelong) and Connor Menadue (Round 7 v Collingwood). 

Get your tickets for the Round 9 Dreamtime at the 'G blockbuster against Essendon

Four of these Tiger cubs will play against the Bombers in the Dreamtime game – McBean, McIntosh, Ellis and Menadue, while Lambert (shoulder) and Drummond (knee) are sidelined through injury.

“It’s exciting any time you bring in a new player, and they’ve got to earn their jumper, and play the Richmond way as we’ve spoken about,” said Tiger coach Damien Hardwick.

“We’ve regularly had three first-year players in our side, and not many other clubs have done that this year. 

“It promotes a regeneration effect, I suppose you’d say. 

“Probably a number of those guys have played a little bit earlier than we would have liked.  But we’ve obviously had some injuries to our players that normally play in those positions. 

“While it is exciting, they’ve certainly got a lot of scope for improvement.  But it’s great to see them running around in a Richmond jumper.”