Talented, tough, Tiger cub Jack Graham picked up where he left off late last season, producing a powerful, pressure-packed performance in last Thursday night’s opening round victory over Carlton at the MCG.

Graham, in just his sixth game of AFL football, applied a game-high 13 tackles and recorded a whopping 101 pressure points throughout the match.

When you consider the next best for pressure points on the night was Richmond captain Trent Cotchin, with 52, you can appreciate just how effective Graham was defensively.

Graham’s value to the Tigers’ team, notwithstanding his inexperience, was further highlighted when he was moved on to Patrick Cripps in a bid to quell the considerable influence that the Blues’ star midfielder was exerting.

And, just like in last year’s Grand Final, when swung on to his childhood football idol Rory Sloane, Graham did the job admirably.

“That’s Jack. He’s a blue-collar player, tough as nails and just willing to do all that hard stuff,” Graham’s Tiger teammate Josh Caddy told Triple M.

“You need a good balance . . . Not saying that Jack’s not a star in his own right, but we’ve got guys like ‘Cotch’ (Trent Cotchin) and ‘Dusty’ (Dustin Martin) that obviously, offensively, are very, very good.

“You need role players, too, like Jacky Graham.

“He’s going to go to be a massive player, but right now, what he does for us defensively, is unbelievable.

“Obviously (Patrick) Cripps was having a pretty nice game and getting a heap of the footy, so we put Jack on him to try and nullify his influence, and I think he did that.

“Probably 13 of those tackles were on Cripps, I’d say.”