Star Richmond key defender Alex Rance has provided a special insight into his impressive development at the game’s highest level.

Rance, who earned All-Australian selection for the first time last year, following an excellent season, has started 2015 in superb style, and is now recognised as one of the competition’s elite defenders.

But, as Rance told Fox Footy, it took him a while to find his feet at senior league level.

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“When I first got here, I could throw some numbers around in the gym, but it didn’t really correlate out on the track,” Rance said.

 “I couldn’t really push people around like I could now, and it was probably the transition of when ‘Leppa’ (Justin Leppitsch) came in (as Richmond’s backline coach). 

“He knew a lot of the techniques to push people around, and to move humans rather than move weights. 

“I got myself into as many positions as I could to use that strength, and it’s evolved from that to increasing my ball-reading ability.”

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Rance agreed that it took about 60 games for him to feel settled in senior league ranks.

 “The first 60 games were really scratchy, probably, and then I really started to consolidate towards that 60-70 (game mark),” he said.