Richmond Tigers reveal Alex Rance’s great legacy

Richmond’s ability to win the 2019 premiership without Alex Rance was due in part to the legacy the champion defender will leave at Tigerland.

Dylan Grimes and David Astbury celebrate the 2019 AFL grand final win with their mentor Alex Rance. Picture: Getty Images

Richmond’s ability to win the 2019 premiership without Alex Rance was due in part to the legacy the champion defender will leave at Tigerland.

There was a period where the loss of Rance, who announced his retirement on Thursday, would have devastated Richmond.

But as he developed into one of the most outstanding fullbacks to play the game, Rance also devoted time to fast-tracking the talent of fellow defenders David Astbury and Dylan Grimes.

As Astbury told The Australian in September, for all the individual accolades the Jack Dyer Medallist has earned, the imprint he left on his teammates might prove his greatest legacy.

“A sign of a truly good leader is how well the system works when you are not there,” Astbury said.

“What he understood and realised … was to get the ultimate success, he had to develop people and he had to be a catalyst for that, to fast-track it.

“If he had not done that and he then went out of the team, we would be naked. We would have really struggled.

“He was able to see that, for us to be the best team we could be, he had to take a little bit of a back seat on particular things.”

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There was shock at the timing of the announcement. As recently as Tuesday Grimes had spoken glowingly of the progress the five-time All Australian was making in his rehabilitation from a knee reconstruction.

But the Tigers had been mindful for years that Rance was a somewhat restless footballer.

While a dedicated trainer and tremendous footballer, the 30-year-old had always emphasised his main priority was his family and his faith.

Having initially contemplated retirement in 2015, the devout Jehovah’s Witness walks away fulfilled as a premiership Tiger and 200-game player.

“Right now, I feel I have served my purpose in terms of my on-field performance and cultural impact and I’m so grateful to the football club for their support and care in allowing me to do that in my own unique way,” he said.

“Now I feel is the right time for me to put the same time and energy into other areas of my life that need it and to prioritise the more important things to me, such as my spiritual growth, my family and friends.”

Rance, whose father Murray captained West Coast in 1989, was not an immediate star.

He fumbled and bumbled on occasion in his early years but, as Richmond great Matthew Richardson noted when describing him as a training beast, the ethic and talent was clear. He matured into one of the greatest defenders to play football.

Rather than simply nullifying the game’s best forwards, with the assistance of teammates Rance would back his athleticism in to win the ball in the air or at ground level and counter-attack.

Trends analysis David King noted Rance was the No 1 player in the competition between 2015 and 2018 for scores that occurred after he intercepted the ball.

Richmond captain Trent Cotchin was among those to pay tribute to Rance, who told his teammates of his decision prior to training on Thursday.

Junior teammate Nic Naitanui also offered his congratulations.

In a testament to his place in the game, AFL legend Leigh Matthews described Rance as an “all-time great”.

“I firmly believe that players get better by the generation (and) even allowing for that cycle of constant improvement, no other defender I have seen matches his dominating presence to control the back 50 (metre arc),” he wrote.

Richmond believed Rance could play on for several years. It is why they intervened in late August, as the defender was pushing to prove his fitness for the finals, as a safeguard for the future.

But as Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale said, they were always aware Rance might ultimately decide to focus fully on his faith and family.“This is a life decision. He has priorities outside of football and balancing those has vexed him,” Gale said.

The timing is problematic for the Tigers, as it leaves them with a vacant spot on their list. Rance was contracted until 2021.