SELF-IMPOSED stress is clearly something Brian Harris thrives on.

The key defender, who has made the Bulldogs’ full-back position his own in the past few seasons, lines up on the competition's best forwards every week.

Somewhat strangely, Harris said he enjoys the challenge of curtailing the league's best goalkickers.

"It's very hard," he admitted to westernbulldogs.com.au.

"There's a lot of pressure, and there's also a lot of work to be done during the week.

"[You have to] understand the way he plays, and the way the midfield brings the ball in as well.

"With our backline at the moment, we've got a lot of guys who give you confidence in helping out third man in, and stuff like that, which is very handy."

Harris said the amount of theory the players have to do each week in order to give themselves the best possible chance against the opposition often goes unmentioned.

"As a team, we usually have about three or four meetings, and after the game we do the review of the game we've just played," he said.

"Then you go into the reviews of the opposition team and opposition players and stuff like that, as a team, and then you do your individual work as a backline, and get more precise about the opponents you're going to stand.

"There's a fair few hours in that."

Harris said the responsibility of playing as the club's No. 1 defender is one he wouldn't exchange, as he relishes the fact he must be accountable every week for the team to succeed.

"It makes you switch on every week, I guess," he said.

"You've always got to concentrate. There's no light weeks in the games these days, so it makes you switch on 22 weeks of the year.

"I guess it's a little bit mentally fatiguing, at stages, because you've just got to be switched on for the whole game. There's not many chances for me to come off and rest on the bench either, so it's pretty flat-out."

This year, Harris said Richmond's Matthew Richardson has been the toughest forward he's stand so far, with the Tigers' spearhead kicking three goals against him in round four.

While he remembers that game for the wrong reasons, he has pleasant memories of his round five appearance against the Hawks, where he picked up a career-best 27 possessions.

"It was probably one of the better games for my career so far," he said.

"I was playing a different role than usual, I was on my man but was playing a bit of loose-man defence as well.

"I was able to get some stats up, which was good. My previous best was 19 touches, so I was very happy with that."