Dermott Brereton says Hawks must employ a big, strong forward to neutralise Alex Rance
THE stats show Tiger Alex Rance’s influence is on the slide as opposition teams try to negate the star defender. And Dermott Brereton says the Hawks’ master coach has to follow suit.
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DERMOTT Brereton says Alastair Clarkson must engage Alex Rance with a power forward he cannot “disrespect” as new figures show the All Australian will hit September far from the peak of his powers.
Rance was last week awarded a fifth consecutive All Australian trophy but in recent months rivals have found ways to curtail his marking powers and stop his offensive run.
According to Champion Data’s Official Player Rankings, Rance has recorded the biggest decrease in impact of any player from before the mid-season bye to post the bye.
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And as he prepares for Thursday night’s qualifying final his one-on-one loss percentage of just 16 per cent pre-bye has ballooned to 36 per cent after it.
Brereton says Rance is judged by impossibly high standards but believes Clarkson will find ways to ensure his forwards bring the ball to ground for their fleet of dangerous crumbers.
Rance was a phenomenon in last year’s finals, playing three consecutive blinders and shutting out Josh Jenkins and Andy Ottens in the premiership win.
A strong Norm Smith Medal contender early before having little to do in the second half, he won a remarkable six of his 11 one-on-one marking contests and halved the other five.
But Rance has hauled in only three of his 22 contested marks for the season in the past 10 games, with his player ranking dropping from a sky-high 15.5 pre-bye to just 8.1 post-bye.
It is a 47 per cent drop since Round 14, with his metres gained nearly halving from 278 per game to 146 and his intercept marks dropping from 4 per game to 2.2.
Five-time premiership Hawk Brereton said rather than trying to drag Rance out of the action with a dummy-leading forward Clarkson needed a big strong target to engage the marking defender.
“He has just dropped off to the point of only being really, really good,” Brereton said.
“Hawthorn have been playing Jarryd Roughead as the second ruckman, and they don’t have a lockdown forward, so they either go with Roughead deep — who is good enough to demand Rance’s attention — or go with both Jon Ceglar and (Ben) McEvoy.”
“In a one-on-one battle (Rance) has always struggled against seriously tall, big guys who play from behind and outreach him,” he said.
“Last year when he was still at Port Adelaide Jackson Trengove played on him and just put work into him as a truly negating player.
“If you try to isolate him and he still sees the ball coming in and he thinks he can get it he will play off his opponent and get to the contest to assist.
“So the player he is on has to be worthy of his consideration otherwise he will disrespect him and play off him.“
The Tigers have been in a holding pattern for some time, aware they will finish top two as they defend their premiership.
Rance’s past fortnight has shown some of his trademark attack on the ball and intercept marking but rivals are also trying to get the ball into the Tigers’ forward line at great speed.
Master coach Alastair Clarkson will have spent the past fortnight scheming about how to limit Rance’s impact, with the star defender usually taking the deepest forward as a pure full back.
The Tigers are aware that like the Western Bulldogs, Adelaide and West Coast before them, Hawthorn will try to control the ball with precise foot skills and short kicks to marking players.
As Richmond football boss Neil Balme said, the only remedy to that style of play is the Tigers’ trademark pressure to force high kicks to the premiers’ intercept marking defenders.
Rance has enjoyed an inconsistent season, but only five players have kicked multiple goals on him — Josh Jenkins and Lance Franklin (both four), Jake Melksham (three), Ben Brown and Cale Hooker (both two).
Originally published as Dermott Brereton says Hawks must employ a big, strong forward to neutralise Alex Rance