The surprise project that was like ‘therapy’ for Rance
Retired Tigers favourite Alex Rance has revealed the surprise project that was a “therapy of sorts” when he was “struggling” last year.
Fiona Byrne
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Former Richmond champion Alex Rance is turning into a marathon man as he continues to find new passions and challenges in his life post footy.
Additionally he has finally ruled out a return to AFL, saying he was “good to head off into the sunset” and opened up about placing too much importance on footy to the detriment of other aspects of his life.
Marathons are part of his new sporting goals as are pushing his endurance in triathlons.
Rance, who shocked footy fans by calling time on his glittering career in December, said he had placed too much importance on football and described writing his latest book, Monkey’s Tale, as a form of therapy.
“This one was almost a therapy of sorts when I was struggling through last year and I wanted to put some things down on paper of how I was feeling,” Rance told ABC Radio Melbourne’s Raf Epstein.
“It was actually really good for me to work out what I was prioritising in my life because clearly football was the centre and everything in my life when it probably shouldn’t have been.
“There should have been probably a bit more balance about my life.
“When I looked at my life and I looked at the time and energy that I dedicated to it (football), whether it was physical training or emotional training or emotional investment, it was highly focused on how good I wanted the team to be and how I wanted my own performance to be rather than the time and energy I put into my family and my faith and different things like that and it became very evident once that part of my life was not what it was before.”
Rance, who is a Jehovah’s Witness and whose marriage to his wife Georgia ended last year, admitted his decision to walk away from footy did not come easily but had given him greater clarity.
“It has given me great confidence now to know that I have achieved all that I have in football imagine if I put that into my family, imagine if I put that into my other business, The Academy, if I put that amount of focus and energy into my spirituality, into whatever it might be, how good could that be? What could I achieve?”
Rance will lead a sold out trek to Nepal in November.
While he has quit the club he is still a tiger at heart and will be watching Richmond’s first round clash with Carlton on March 19.
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