Richmond chief Brendon Gale pays tribute to ‘mad’ Alex Rance after star Tiger’s retirement
Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale has opened up on Alex Rance’s quirkiest trait after the champion defender’s shock retirement.
Richmond
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Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale has paid tribute to the “stark raving mad” locker room leader Alex Rance after the champion defender’s shock retirement.
After Rance dropped the pre-season bombshell that he was walking away from the game, the Tigers’ boss revealed the star full-back’s range of alter egos as his quirkiest trait.
His matchwinning defensive exploits aside, Gale said Rance boasted an energy that had the ability to lift everyone at the club.
“He has just got a range of alter egos,” Gale said.
“He just flips into different personalities and I don’t know where they come from or where he draws inspiration from but he is just stark raving mad.
“It’s that sort of stuff and the unpredictability and the sponteneity … footy clubs can be pretty hard places in the middle of winter and you’re under pressure and it’s that approach and that energy and spontenaity that lifts so many others around him.
“He is mad, I don’t understand him, but he lifts the place. He is one of the those guys that creates energy and things happen.
“They happen on the field, you see that, but they happen off the field as well.”
Gale said the Tigers were disappointed in Rance’s decision to retire, but admitted he was not totally surprised by the call.
“It’s a decision we were disappointed with, but it’s a life decision, it’s a decision that he has thought long and hard about,” Gale said.
“For Alex there have always been other priorities other than just football. We certainly respect that and certainly supported him through that process hopeful that he may extend his career, but we certainly respect the very strong decision he’s arrived at.”
Rance walks away from the game with two years still to run on his contract.
Gale said Rance would stay on Richmond’s list next year, but his lucrative contract would be “amended accordingly”.
“There is no compulsion to move him off our list at this stage,” Gale said.
“The contract will be amended accordingly, he will stay on our list until the end of the year and we’ll deal with it then.
“He’ll stay on the list until the end of the year, we don’t have to so anything at this stage.”
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Reflecting on his favourite Rance moment on the field, Gale described the defender’s efforts in the final round against Sydney in 2014 as “herculean”.
“That game he was remarkable,” Gale said.
“The final game in 2014 against Sydney, we needed to win that game to make the finals but making the finals it was the first time we had reached successive finals since 74/75 so making successive finals was a huge measure of progress for out footy club.
“He single-handedly won that game, or denied Sydney from winning it. He was herculean in the last quarter, it was remarkable. I look back at great fondness at that moment at that game.”