Alex Rance gets his revenge on Harry Taylor with outstanding finals performance
LAST time Alex Rance went toe-to-toe with Harry Taylor, it was one of the worst games of his career. On Friday night at the MCG, everything changed.
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ON a wet night in which the forecast of a tempest never quite eventuated, Damien Hardwick’s long-range prediction that lightning wouldn’t strike was at least spot on the money.
We should never have doubted him.
Hardwick was talking during the week about the ability of champions to respond to the rare occasions in which they are beaten.
MATCH REPORT: ALL ABOARD THE TIGER TRAIN
MARK ROBINSON: IS DUSTY OFFICIALLY THE BEST IN THE GAME?
PLAYER RATINGS: WHO STEPPED UP, WHO CRASHED?
GAME RECAP: HOW THE TIGERS GOT IT DONE
SELWOOD RETURN: MAYBE IT WAS TOO SOON
Alex Rance did that tonight, and while much of the plaudits will go to Dustin Martin, Dion Prestia, Trent Cotchin and others, he was a critical part of the Tigers’ first finals win in 16 years.
Four weeks ago, the All-Australian defender/captain had his game uncharacteristically dismantled by Harry Taylor, whose four goals were only part of the story.
Rance was out of sorts that day in a way we have rarely seen in recent seasons — he was frustrated, beaten one-on-one, and unable to claw his way back into the contest at any stage.
Hardwick was certain it wasn’t going to happen twice.
“Champions often respond,” Hardwick said during the week. “I think I’ve seen (Rance) lose four one-on-one contests in his career and I think three of them were on that day. Harry is a really good player as well, so we expect that similar match-up to occur. We learnt some lessons from that, Alex will certainly learn some lessons. He’s a very proud man.”
Those lessons learned, Rance did a job on the dangerous Taylor, keeping him out of any meaningful contribution to the game to the point where Triple M’s Nathan Brown said the Geelong forward was “non-existent” for most of the game.
It took Taylor until the 21-minute-mark of the last quarter to score his one and only goal when the game was long gone. Even then, Rance looked peeved that he allowed him that one.
Rance’s intentions were clear from the outset. He had to negate Taylor, even if it meant he wasn’t going to get a heap of the ball himself. That’s precisely what he did.
Taylor had eight disposals; Rance had double that.
Rance, ably supported by a cast of other defenders, quite literally threw himself into the contest. Early on, he had to leave the field bleeding profusely after copping an accidental knee to the head. He was patched up and returned to the fray in a matter of minutes.
Then he took a typically courageous mark midway through the last quarter, landing heavily on his neck. He looked sore, but to the relief of the raucous Richmond faithful got to his feet.
There was a big cheer when he came off with only a handful of minutes remaining to rest up for the preliminary final in a fortnight, embracing Martin and Cotchin on the final siren.
MATCH REPORT: ALL ABOARD THE TIGER TRAIN
MARK ROBINSON: IS DUSTY OFFICIALLY THE BEST IN THE GAME?
PLAYER RATINGS: WHO STEPPED UP, WHO CRASHED?
GAME RECAP: HOW THE TIGERS GOT IT DONE
SELWOOD RETURN: MAYBE IT WAS TOO SOON
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