Mick McGuane breaks down Alex Rance’s impact on Richmond and why the Tigers can still win the 2020 flag
The Tigers will miss superstar defender Alex Rance a lot. But his shock retirement will not stop the club from winning another premiership in 2020, writes Mick McGuane.
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In footy, no one is indispensable.
That’s one constant in a game full of uncertainties and it’s also part of the reason why Richmond will still go into 2020 as premiership favourites, despite the shock retirement of champion defender Alex Rance.
Don’t get me wrong, the Tigers will miss him.
Terribly.
You don’t replace one of the best defenders of the modern era without some pain, but Rance’s legacy is certain to live on at Punt Rd long after he has cleaned that No.18 locker out.
Besides, the Tigers learnt to live without him long before he stunned us with his retirement on Thursday morning.
Their 2019 reward for doing this ended in premiership success.
You only have to go back as far as the end of the 2010 season to understand what I am talking about when saying no one is indispensable.
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Geelong was meant to slide off a cliff when Gary Ablett – the game’s best player at the time – quit to join Gold Coast.
Instead, the Cats won the flag the following year without Ablett.
AFL footy is a systems-based game now. You can lose stars and yet still prevail if your system stands up.
Richmond’s system does, and it will stand once again in 2020.
Damien Hardwick’s close-knit team adheres to a system they have created – one that Rance helped shape and evolve – and that’s why they are my early pick to win back-to-back flags next year.
The Tigers won’t have Rance as “recruit of the year” in 2020, but their defensive half who stood up in his absence this year will be even better equipped for life without him next year.
David Parkin had a famous saying – “Surrender the Me for We” – and that rang true for the Tigers in 2019.
They were a selfless group, not a selfish group. Rance epitomised that in a nutshell.
The likes of Dylan Grimes, Nick Vlastuin, David Astbury, Nathan Broad, Bachar Houli and Jayden Short were able to live and breathe the standards Rance drilled into them.
The trust he helped build over a period of time meant their reliance on him wasn’t so profound as to hold them back. Most of them flourished in his absence because they had to.
Grimes inherited Rance’s role and took his game to another level.
He would often be the deepest defender and he was equally at home watching the game and guarding space and being that on-field general capable of squeezing the ground.
He was the traffic cop Rance used to be … the traffic cop Rance taught him to be.
Rance showed this group how to train, how to prepare and how to approach footy in a selfless manner.
We saw that in Round 1 when he was still encouraging his teammates from the dug-out despite knowing his season was over, and we saw it again (with some tears) in celebrating with his teammates after the Grand Final.
His teammates in defence were prepared to look and learn – not just look – at the way he approached his footy.
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This game throws up constant surprises, as we have seen in recent years.
Now we’ve had two premiership superstars from the same 2007 draft – Rance and Cyril Rioli – prematurely walk away from the game.
The lesson is simple.
Enjoy the spectacle and appreciate watching the best players strut their stuff while you can because you never really know what’s around the corner.
Originally published as Mick McGuane breaks down Alex Rance’s impact on Richmond and why the Tigers can still win the 2020 flag