A greater emphasis on defence has been pivotal to Richmond’s resurgence during the second half of the season, according to the team’s star full-back Alex Rance.

This stronger defensive attitude was clearly evident in the Tigers’ fighting 10-point win against Adelaide at Adelaide Oval last Saturday night.

“It’s just been a change in mindset, as to what will win a game, and what you can do to help win the game,” Rance said on SEN.

“It’s not the ‘I’ve got to take this game on and do something offensively’.  We’ve really found that it’s the defensive actions that you can do, and stand up, that’ll win the game.

“If you try and play ‘Russian Roulette’ against those type of teams, like Essendon and Adelaide, then, more often than not, they’ve got some quality users that can cut you up.

“So, as a group, we’ve really noticed that if we just do the defensive things, and realise that in those last, crunch minutes, if you can make a big play defensively, then the offensive rewards will come eventually.”

Rance also pointed to the growing maturity within Richmond’s playing group as a factor in the team’s ability to win tight games, such as last Saturday night’s clash with the Crows.

“We’ve really matured as a group . . . we’ve been through a lot of times where games have gotten away from us late, and I think we’ve learnt from them.

“There was some great leadership (last Saturday night), some great contested ball wins by (Trent) Cotchin and ‘Chappy’ (Troy Chaplin) as well.

“They’re two of our really good leaders that stood up when it really counted.”