Alex Rance is regarded as the best fullback in the AFL but are we forgetting about Michael Hurley?

RICHMOND star Alex Rance is widely regarded as the best fullback in the AFL but has Michael Hurley quietly joined him? Essendon’s David Zaharakis says yes — and he’d even take him ahead of Rance. Do you agree? Have your say.

Michael Hurley elevated his game last year and he picked up from where he left off on Friday night.

ALEX Rance or Michael Hurley?

The overwhelming majority of people — this reporter included — would immediately vote for Rance, who was named as an All-Australian for a fourth successive season last year, and is not out of place when discussing some of the greatest defenders of any era.

Hurley is a considerable distance behind that, but it was no surprise to hear Essendon midfielder David Zaharakis choose his teammate when asked for an assessment on the AFL’s best fullback in the business after Friday night’s win over Adelaide.

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“Everyone says ‘Rancey’ is the best fullback in the comp, but ‘Hurls’ is right up there,” Zaharakis said to Matthew Richardson, one of Rance’s biggest fans, on Channel 7.

“There’s a great competition between those two about who is the best fullback in the comp ... I’ll take Mick, I think. I’m definitely voting for Mick.”

The All-Australian selectors had the luxury of choosing both in their team last year, with Rance also named as captain (a massive pointer to his leadership skills) and Hurley chosen as the team’s centre-half-back.

Michael Hurley elevated his game last year and he picked up from where he left off on Friday night.

It was the All-Australian version of having your cake and eating it too, and in a hypothetical sense at least, heaven help any forward line who would ever have to contend with the Richmond star and his Essendon counterpart.

Rance has redefined the role of a key defender in recent seasons and it is hard to think of a modern player who has so definitively changed on-field perceptions of himself from the start of his career — when turnovers were a serious concern — to a football with supreme confidence in himself both in offensive and defensive modes.

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He just isn’t beaten one-on-one (it happens so rarely) and he is the best interceptor in the game.

He has won a club best-and-fairest (2015), and if it wasn’t for two freakish seasons from teammate Dustin Martin, his two runners-ups might have turned into something else.

But what Rance, 28, has done is also elevated the bar for defenders, and it seems as if Michael Hurley, who is eight months his junior, and has had his own difficulties over his journey, has taken the challenge and quite literally run with it.

In an interview with the Herald Sun last year, Hurley admitted Rance was template for his own development, saying: “I definitely admire, almost envy him.

“He’s the pinnacle of defensive players in the competition. By the time he finishes up he very well could (the best of all-time).

“To watch him, you just marvel at the confidence in his game. He looks like he knows he’s going to win his one-on-ones regardless of who he’s playing on.

Is Alex Rance still the best defender in the competition? Picture: Alex Coppel

“He has a great balance of knowing where his man is and where the ball is and there’s no doubt, when he attacks he knows he’s going to get it.

“Just his hunger for the contest, his willingness to crack in and help and win contests most others won’t.

“And with that, he helps his teammates just as well as any player. He’s the best.”

Hurley has two All-Australians to his name (2015 and 2017), and two placings in Essendon best-and-fairests (second in 2015 and third in 2011), but he is starting to take his game to new heights.

He is getting far more of the ball now — he averaged 26 disposals per game last year — and surpassed that with 28 possessions in another strong display on Friday night, repelling the Crows’ forays into attack during the contest.

He’s not Rance (who is?), but he’s bloody good.

And just as the Richmond vice-captain has played a critical role as a leader in his team’s resurgence up the ladder, it appears Hurley — a key member of Essendon’s leadership group — is a chance to do the same.